Frye the bridge between Tagovailoa and coaches
The NFL’s 40-second play clock is ticking. Both sides have made their substitutions, and the play gets called into Tua Tagovailoa’s headset. A number on the quarterback’s wristband is relayed in through the coach-to-quarterback radio system the NFL has set up.
“Wristband 33,” coach Brian Flores used as an example of a Miami Dolphins play-call that comes during a given game.
After that call, the person on the other end of the headset has up to the final 15 seconds of the play clock to remind Tagovailoa about some checks they’ve gone over in practice, or the film room before the communication is shut off.
Maybe it’s about looking for the safety’s pre-snap depth, or when to put the X or Z receiver in motion, attempting to identify whether the opponent is in man or zone from a coverage standpoint.
Tagovailoa then checks his wristband and calls out the name of the play to his offensive linemen and playmakers.
That’s how things will work this season when it comes to the Dolphins’ process for running their offense. In what’s viewed as an unorthodox approach, instead of having one of the team’s co-offensive coordinators be on the other end of Tagovailoa’s headset, Miami has put new quarterback coach Charlie Frye in the role of Tagovailoa’s pre-snap advisor.
“When you’re a position coach and you spend time with a player every day, you kind of have your own language, your own conversations about different plays. ‘Hey, remember we talked about this like this or remember we saw this in practice.’ “Flores explained.
“That’s a different relationship or way of speaking than it is with a coordinator. I know that because I’ve been a position coach and a coordinator. The idea behind Charlie giving the play call is [to relay] one or two things that they’ve talked about in their room specific to the quarterbacks.
“That just makes sense to me and I think that’s pretty reasonable,” Flores continued. “That’s why we do it that way.”
And no, Frye isn’t the play-caller. We’re overthinking this.
Flores has said play-calling will be a collaborative effort during the week, and why can’t we just take that at face value?
Is it because we need someone to blame, someone to hold accountable if/when things go wrong?
If that’s the case then let’s call George Godsey, a former college quarterback who has primarily worked with passing games throughout his NFL career, the pass-game coordinator.
That would make fellow co-offensive coordinator Eric Studesville, who has spent 25 years coaching running backs, the run-game coordinator. It’s actually a title he held in Miami under former Dolphins coach Adam Gase for two seasons before Flores retained him.
So now that Godsey is responsible for the passing game — if it struggles — and Studesville is responsible for the run game — if it struggles or fails to score a touchdown at the goal line like Miami did in last Saturday’s 20-13 loss to the Chicago Bears — can we stop this obsession with who is calling plays?
Plenty of work is done during the week to craft a script for the first 20 plays, and game plans for what will be done on third downs and in the red zone. It’s not the person calling in the play who is responsible for its success or failure.
And for Miami’s purposes, it’s not the person who is the last to communicate with Tagovailoa before his headset shuts off.
What we should be looking for is efficiency and execution, not a scapegoat for when things go wrong like last season, when there was undeniable discomfort between former offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, who resigned in the offseason following the highest scoring season for the franchise in 24 years, and Tagovailoa.
In an interview with The Athletic earlier this month Gailey acknowledged his surprise at Flores’ decision to bench Ryan Fitzpatrick for Tagovailoa, and had some concerns that the rookie wasn’t ready.
Who knows if those concerns were expressed at the time, or in hindsight.
But the relationship with Gailey and Tagovailoa became icy, so a change happened, and Robby Brown, Gailey’s hand-picked quarterback coach, was also out.
Frye, who coached Tagovailoa at Nike’s Elite 11 7-on-7 football camp five years ago, was named his replacement after Flores sought Tagovailoa’s feedback.
“I like who Charlie is. I’ve known him for quite some time. I think he’s a really good coach,” Tagovailoa said. “He’s personable. A lot of the guys on the team like him. But, yeah, I think he’s a really good coach.”
It helps that Frye, who played five seasons in the NFL for three organizations and had a 7-16 record in his 23 starts, has been where Tagovailoa is, behind center staring down the barrel of fast-moving NFL defenses.
“He’s putting in the time and you can tell it’s important to him. You see growth,” Frye said when assessing Tagovailoa’s development. “As a young quarterback you always have to learn from each day, each practice, each rep, and go out the next day and try to make it better.”
That is the journey Tagovailoa is on, and it’s on Frye and the rest of Miami’s coaches to make sure the line of communication remains open — and more importantly — effective.