Palsgrove’s Points
Mike McDaniels is just a kid playing Madden, and I absolutely love it. Welcome back to Palsgrove’s Points, and this week, I have the pleasure of talking about a fellow football nerd, Miami Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniels.
So far this season, the Miami Dolphins have the most electric offense in the NFL. They’ve put up the most yards in the NFL with 2,044 yards in four games. The next highest is a stunning 452 yards behind Miami. That means the gap between the Dolphins and the No. 2 offense in total yards is the same as the gap between numbers 2 and 22. They set the field on fire against the Broncos, scoring an absurd 70 points, which is just three shy of the NFL record. The way they’ve been able to do that really isn’t complex — their head coach is just playing video games with real NFL players.
Let’s talk about EA Sports’ Madden for a second. Anyone who’s played the game at any sort of level knows that to win in Madden, you have to leave the realm of reality a little bit. You can’t win in Madden by coaching as if you’re an NFL coach. You can’t punt, you can’t really play conservative and running the ball is nowhere near as potent as it is in the real world. The best way to win is to run fast, throw far and always play aggressive. McDaniels has started play calling like that in real life.
Speed: They is speed
The Dolphins might be the fastest offense to ever take the field and somehow, I’m not exaggerating. With arguably the best player in the league leading their wide receiver corps in Tyreek Hill, an extremely talented route runner and speed threat Jaylen Waddle, and the fastest running back duo in the league with rookie De’Von Achane and veteran Raheem Mostert, the Dolphins are lightning quick across the board.
Prior to week four, three Dolphin’s players claimed positions 1-6 in top speeds hit in games this season per NFL’s Next Gen Stats, which is genuinely absurd.
Those four, paired with a snappy release from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, lead to one of the most interesting offenses in the league. Sometimes in football, straight-up speed can be an empty stat, but not for Miami. They wholly rely on the speed of their skill positions to create space and spread defenses apart, which leaves tons of room for receivers to get open. This might seem like a pretty basic idea — give the ball to the fastest players in the league and give them room to work — and that’s because it kind of is.
Anyone who grew up playing Madden like I did learned this lesson early on, but it took until a self-proclaimed football nerd broke onto the scene for the NFL to adapt to the tried-and-true video game strategy.
Scheme: Genuine genius at play-calling
It’s one thing to collect the fastest players in the NFL, it’s another to use them the way that McDaniels does. Let’s do a quick thought exercise. What do you think is moving at the faster speed, the racer who gets to have a head start to build up speed, or the racer who pushes off the line? It’s obviously the first option, right?
Well, if you picked the first option, McDaniels agrees with you. If you go and watch film of the Dolphin’s first four games, you’ll see that they love to get their wide receivers and running backs into motion and allow them to build up a head of steam before the ball is snapped.
“The Dolphins’ 83.3% rate of using pre-snap shifts or motion leads the NFL,” Sam Monson at PFF said, and that helps them to maintain a “gap between the Miami offense and second place in expected points added per play. This season is the same as the gap between second and (the) 21st.”
It seems like a little thing, and an obvious one at that, but it’s one that has given the Dolphins an edge over their opponents. And that’s just one of the ways that Miami’s offensive scheme maximizes its speed threats.
In week three against the Broncos, Miami scored 70 points (just three shy of the NFL record) and had 726 yards of total offense, which set a new NFL record. Those are video game-esque numbers. Their follow-up performance against division-opponent Buffalo Bills saw the Miami offense slow down, but I still can’t wait to see what this offense evolves into later this season.
Palsgrove is the asst. sports editor. for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on X
