Full speed ahead
Dolphins plan a fast-paced offense this season.
OXNARD, CALIF. — When the play clock is ticking down against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday — and rest of this season — the Miami Dolphins won’t let a second go to waste.
Coach Adam Gase intends to get his offense to the line of scrimmage quickly and spend as much of the 25 seconds he has before the headset speaker in quarterback Jay Cutler’s helmet shuts off by assessing the defense before making a play call.
That’s the main reason Miami intends to keep the pace of the offense fast in 2017, so don’t expect much huddling from the offense this season. And if you do see a huddle, something has gone wrong.
The Dolphins want their offensive linemen sprinting to the line, which is why that unit has begun to run gassers after practice, or an extra 10 yards downfield after every offensive play during team periods of practice.
Miami wants its playmakers locked onto Cutler’s hand signals, learning their assignment and hot routes from their take-off points on the line of scrimmage.
If things go according to plan, the Dolphins will resemble the NFL’s version of the
1980s Showtime Lakers, up-tempo and aggressive, steadily pushing the pace.
“A lot of our offense is no-huddle. We just decide to slow it down,” receiver Jarvis Landry said. “We’re not really a huddle team. We’re a no-huddle team that decides to huddle when we want to. That’s a better way to put it.”
The Dolphins tried to play an up-tempo style last season, but for various reasons — primarily, skill players didn’t grasp the newly installed offense, and struggles on third down kept stressing the defense — the offense struggled with it during the first five games, which produced a 1-4 record.
Gase, who has been accustomed to quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning calling plays at the line of scrimmage during his tenure as an NFL playcaller, was forced to scrap the up-tempo approach in the October game against the Pittsburgh Steelers last season.
Coincidentally, or not, changing the team’s style — slowing things down — helped turn the season around because from that point the Dolphins went on to win nine out of the season’s final 11 games, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
But Gase, who spent three years working under Mike Martz, who ran an up-tempo offense at every stop, including his era as play-caller and coach in St. Louis — including the record-setting offense that got nicknamed “The Greatest Show On Turf ” — has long coveted that fast pace.
And Cutler prefers it also, so expect the volume of Miami’s no-huddle offense to be turned up.
“When you get into a situation where the quarterback feels comfortable but then you have 10 other guys that it’s hard with, you really have to go away from it,” Gase said, explaining why Miami abandoned it last season. “If you have 50 percent, it’s just not enough. Last year we just got into a situation where we needed to settle everything down and really keep learning what we were doing and get better at that.”
Offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen said how “natural” Cutler is running a no-huddle offense is the biggest surprise he’s had about Miami’s new starting quarterback.
The benefit of speeding it up for Gase is that it gives him extra time to relay information to the quarterback.
The coach-to-quarterback radio system shuts off at 15 seconds (the play clock is 40), and by his offense hurrying to the line, Gase can scan the field, picking up what a defense’s alignment is before determining what play to run against it.
That extra time to communicate with Cutler allows him to point out indicators that will help him execute the play better.
“Jay always says I talk too much, but I don’t care,” Gase said. “He can deal with it.”
Cutler flies solo during that final 15 seconds, but that initial 25 seconds is where a coach such as Gase has gained his quarterbackwhisper er reputation.
“Gase’s intention from the beginning has been to be up-tempo,” Christensen said. “It’d be important this week [against the Chargers] that we can play some up-tempo and keep those [pass rushers] breathing hard.
“We’ll have to see how far we can get with it,” Christensen added.
And how far down Gase and Cutler can push their foot on the offense’s pedal before having to ease up.