Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Goal is to score more
Dolphins make changes to beef up offense.
Adam Gase’s offense the last two years has been lackluster, which falls short of expects for the Miami Dolphins’ head coach, who also serves as the offense’s playcaller.
In Gase’s first season, Miami’s offense ranked 24th in yards per game, and 17th in points per game.
Last season, Miami’s offense ranked 25th in yards per game, and 28th in point points per game.
While there are numerous factors that have contributed to the offense’s struggles the last two seasons — early issues learning the offense in 2016, the loss of starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill in 2016 and 2017, the offensive line struggling early in 2017, slow starts and penaltyplagued execution — the Dolphins are working on a solution.
This offseason, Miami’s overhauled the offense, trying to make it resemble the record-setting one Gase called plays for in 2013 with the Denver Broncos.
While Dowell Loggains has replaced Clyde Christensen as Miami’s offensive coordinator, the first major piece of this offensive renovation features the addition of receivers Danny Amendola and Albert Wilson, who will be responsible for replacing the productivity Miami lost when they traded Jarvis Landry, a three-time Pro Bowler, to Cleveland for a fourth-round pick in 2018 and a 2019 seventh-round selection.
“I remember when we signed Wes [Welker] in Denver, one of the big things that he did was when our young guys saw Wes in practice, they were shocked,” Gase said at the NFL Annual Meeting. “They
couldn’t believe how hard he went, how fast he did everything. There was no half speed. No [taking] any play off. He was full speed all the time.”
Gase said the Broncos had a stable of young receivers who “hadn’t quite saw it through the eyes of a professional,” and Welker “changed the culture, and environment.”
Gase’s hope is that Amendola, who he says has the same kind of personality and work ethic as Welker, whom Amendola replaced in New England in 2013, will have a similar impact on the Dolphins.
That explains why Miami gave Amendola a twoyear deal worth that could potentially be worth $12 million to lure him from New England, which asked Amendola to take a pay cut the past two seasons.
Gase also called Amendola “quarterback friendly,” and said the spacing he creates from defenders will benefit Tannehill.
As for Wilson, Gase praised the development they’ve seen from the Port St. Lucie High product the past two seasons in Kansas City, and said the game speed he’ll bring to Miami’s offense will open up the playbook, even though the Dolphins already have fast receivers like Kenny Stills and Jakeem Grant on the roster.
“His speed is hard to ignore. We saw first-hand how fast he is, what he can do, and how he can stretch the field vertically,” Gase said of Wilson, referring to the three-catches for 36-yard performance he had against the Dolphins in the Chiefs’ 29-13 win over Miami in Week 16.
The next week, Wilson caught 10 passes for 147 yards in a victory over the Broncos, ending the fouryear veteran’s most productive NFL season with 54 receptions for 554 yards and three touchdowns.
“When you put the ball in his hands he makes plays. I don’t think I’ve seen too many wide receivers where teams actually, hands the ball off to them and they sprint between the tackles, and he’s not a running back,” Gase said of Wilson, who the Dolphins signed to a three-year deal that could potentially be worth $24 million. “He has toughness. He has vision and the ability to do a lot of different things, which is pretty intriguing to us.”
Gase is seeking to diversify his receiving corp, which he hopes will be led by DeVante Parker, adding players who have similar skill sets, and game-changing speed.
While Miami is intrigued by the upside of tight end A.J. Derby, who has caught 37 passes for 404 yards and scored two touchdowns while playing for three teams over the last two seasons, based on what coaches saw from him in practices for a month, the Dolphins continue shopping around for a tight end to supplement that unit.
The Dolphins haven’t ruled out re-signing Anthony Fasano, a 12-year veteran who was used as Miami’s in-line tight end last year. But Gase said a decision on whether or not to re-sign Fasano will come down to what the team does in next month’s draft.
This tight end class features a handful of promising prospects like Oklahoma’s Mark Andrews, South Dakota’s Dallas Goedert, South Carolina’s Hayden Hurst, Indiana’s Ian Thomas, Penn State’s Mike Gesicki, Stanford’s Dalton Schultz, Wisconsin’s Troy Fumagalli and UM’s Chris Herndon, who should all be available between rounds 2-5. Many of them have dual-purpose skill sets, which is what the Dolphins are missing.