Tuesday Dolphins Mailbag: Giving Teddy His Due, Sanders and the Not-So-Special Teams, and More

What are the answers on the offensive line? How major of a concern have penalties become? What's a realistic win total now? Those and other questions from Miami Dolphins fans

From Tommy in Hialeah (@Dolphinfan201):

Did Mcfly say why he didn’t kill the clock in first half with seconds left and regroup? Instead, we gifted them a FG!

Hey Tommy, before I answer I have to ask whether you were showing more respect to Mike McDaniel when the Dolphins were 3-0 or did the “Mcfly” just start after they started losing some games. OK, moving on, I’ll actually agree with you because at the time I thought it was an overly aggressive move that’s fine with a highly functioning offense, which wasn’t the case Sunday because of the pass protection issues. And I’ll let McDaniel’s own words explain his thinking there — this is what he said after the game: “You know, the thinking really is a lot of the stuff that when I’m making those decisions, it’s based upon the whole team and where we’re at, and I wanted to — there’s been some stuff that whether it’s true or not true, it feels on the field when you’re getting a slew of penalties, it feels like it’s out of your control. It always is in your control, but it feels, and knowing how the defense was playing, I think it was — we had the opportunity to get the ball back after halftime, so I saw it as a time that would really benefit the whole team if we could go get those points. I always do that based on what’s best for the team, fully knowing that it is result-based. Great calls if it works, terrible calls if it doesn’t. But I think at that point in the game, it would have best served us to have a little momentum going into halftime, and I’ll always make that decision if that’s the case.”

From Reza Hariri (@Therealrezpect1):

The P/A boot as well as the toss sweep are staples of this O but based on personnel a bit predictable. Also in order to make boot effective I believe we have to run more as well as some jet sweeps to WR. Seems like DE are playing boot very well against us.

Hey Reza, yes? Didn’t see a question there, but can’t argue with any of your points.

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From Ken Dorsey’s iPad (@Plopez11598):

Can we cut ties with Jason Sanders financially? He has become a liability.

Hey there, I think “liability” is a strong word, though it’s clear he’s not at his 2020 All-Pro level anymore. He’s 7-for-10 on field goal attempts so far this season, but all the misses have come from 50+ — and, yes, you want your kickers to make those on a regular basis. To answer your question about cutting ties financially, releasing Sanders before the end of the 2022 season would mean $5.6 million of dead money and cost almost $2.5 million of cap space, according to overthecap.com. Cutting him next year with a post-June 1 designation would save $895,000 of cap space but come with $2.9 million of dead money.

From Ricardo Hernandez (@Ricardo96451182):

Hello Alain. In the last game, the greatest penalty-overcoming drive ever lost out to the greatest number-of-penalties-per-play ever resulting in 0 points. Is this a coaching problem with which we’re going to need to be concerned?

Hey Ricardo, it’s not so much the last game, but the last two combined that are approaching concern level because the Dolphins were penalized 21 times against the Jets and Vikings after being penalized 22 times in their first four games combined. Five of the penalties against Minnesota were against the offensive line, which was playing without Terron Armstead, and that was unacceptable. So I’d say penalties definitely are something to keep an eye on in the next few games.

From Mike Mangaras (@finfan_mike):

Now that it’s clearly obvious that Tua is our Franchise QB, given his injury problems, do you think Grier now focuses strictly on offensive lineman until we have a top 5 line or does he play stubborn because he didn’t want Tua in 1st place?

Hey Mike, let’s start with your false premise, and that is suggesting that Chris Grier didn’t want Tua in the first place. There have never been one suggestion or report even hinting at that being true. What’s been out there is that Brian Flores did not want Tua, but that never has been suggested of Grier. Regardless of QB, I absolutely think building a top 5 O-line should be a priority and you can look at the teams that have good offensive lines, they’re almost invariably competitive regardless of quarterback. It’s not like the Dolphins haven’t devoted early draft picks to the offensive line, they just haven’t hit well enough and often enough. And it’s why I personally didn’t have a great problem with Miami taking Jake Long first overall in 2008 instead of Matt Ryan because Long would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer without injuries that nobody could have predicted while Ryan has been a good, not great, NFL quarterback.

From Larry_O49 (@trumpetm06):

What is your guess for a % chance of Grier trading for OL help? It’s clear that if there are injuries the line goes back to a bottom 5 unit.

Hey Larry, the percentage that Grier WANTS to trade for O-line help is probably close to 100. The percentage that he can or will is probably around 30. And the reason is simple: Good offensive linemen are hard to come by and teams just don’t make a habit of giving them away just to be nice. Let’s face it, there’s waaaaay more demand than supply at that position, which makes it very difficult to acquire one. The usual rare exception is an unhappy player who wants to be moved, either for contract purposes or because he wants to play left tackle instead of right tackle (like Orlando Brown).

From Ed (@IsEdandyou):

How many wins could you expect from this group? Reminds me of the Flores team before the winning streak, but the HC is too green to turn this around.

Hey Ed, this might surprise you, but I easily can see 10-11 wins with this group provided the injuries don’t spiral out of control. Let’s not forget we’re looking at a 3-3 team that easily could be 5-1 with a play here or there that goes the right way instead of the wrong way. And now we’re looking at a schedule that over the next five games features PIT, DET, CHI, CLE and HOU — who are a combined 8-19-1.

From Nicklaus (@Nicklauswow):

Why you always dogging Tua? He is the best since Marino, but yet you say Teddy isn't that big of a drop-off. Teddy is a huge drop-off. He looks like a guy annoyed to even be there. He has zero passion and is boring. Put Jones on season-ending IR and trade for Jackson III.

Hey Nicklaus, how am I dogging Tua? And before making a judgment on Bridgewater, how about we give him a game where he actually practices the whole week as a starter and then plays the full game? Because he sure looked fine to me in that fourth quarter against Minnesota after he finally got in a groove. Oh, don’t believe it? His numbers for that one quarter: 15-for-17 for 237 yards with two touchdowns, one INT and a 133.5 passer rating. If you want to make the argument that his stats from the last drive shouldn't count because the outcome already had been decided, fine. No problem. But in the interest of fairness, then we also should take away his fourth-quarter interception because it came with the Dolphins down 24-10 and he needed to make something happen. So to be fair then, we should take away the final drive and the drive after the score became 24-10. Doing that, his fourth-quarter numbers would be 9-for-10 for 129 yards with one touchdown, no picks and a passer rating of 152.1. Oh, and that was without Terron Armstead anchoring the offensive line. So ... why are you dogging Bridgewater?

From Scott F Kenward (@ScottFKenward):

Is it time for a new play-by-play guy? God bless Jimmy Cefalo, but his broadcasts are confusing and at times almost incoherent. Joe Rose does what he can to fill in the downs and distances, but heaven help you if you're driving during a game.

Hey Scott, I obviously don’t listen to games on the radio, so I can’t comment on the broadcasts themselves and there is no way I would remotely touch that question regardless. What I will tell you is that Cefalo revealed in 2021, according to The Miami Herald, that he had been diagnosed with a type of demyelinating disease, which, according to WebMD, affects the protective covering of the nerve fibers around the brain, optic nerves and spinal cord.

From Fred Walton (@FredWal07850576):

At what point do the Dolphins declare the OL "a disaster area" and do "SOMETHING"?

Hey Fred, I think that point arrives if/when it’s determined that Terron Armstead will have to miss a significant amount of time. But as far as doing something, it’s very, very difficult to make any kind of drastic move on the offensive line during a season because impact players just don’t become available and because offensive line success requires cohesiveness and chemistry, which is tough to build when the starting point is the middle of the season. So I understand the frustration, but also thinking this is the cards the Dolphins will have to play in 2022.

From Jorge Fernandez (@jfdad):

Ask Mike why is there no adjustments on left guard spot.

Hey Jorge, what kind of adjustment would you like to see? Michael Deiter inserted into the lineup in place of Liam Eichenberg? Rest assured that if the Dolphins thought it would give them a better chance to win, they’d make that move.

From Dave (@angryvet59):

What in the name of The Wide Wide World of Sports is going on with Sanders & the rest of Special Teams!? Bonus points for movie guess.

Hey Dave, I’m going to have to plead guilty and admit I only got the reference by looking it up — even though I have seen that movie (been a while, though). As for the question, yeah, the special teams have been anything but special this season. Jason Sanders isn’t the same kicker he was in 2020, there have been no returns of consequences by the Dolphins so far, they’re giving up a long return here and there (including the lowlight at Baltimore) and maybe the only bright spot so far has been punter Thomas Morstead. But overall, yes, special teams has been a mess. As to why, not quite sure, and it’s certainly not because the Dolphins didn’t add players with special teams in mind because they have a lot of those guys on the roster.

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