Drive Time - Dolphins Offensive Staff and Run Game Improvements

Dolphins football. And on today's show, we are talking about assistant coaches, both a flashback edition and a Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the current rendition of the Miami Dolphins

coaching staff. Will honor the recipient of the doctor Z Lifetime Achievement Award, And since we talk so much about Brian Flores and his defensive staff, will flip it over to the other side and take a look at the histories and statistics of Miami's remade offensive staff lens of a twenty nineteen season rewatch by yours truly all of that more on this Monday during the twenty ninth edition of the Drivetime Podcast, And you jumped into the show

with some fantastic news. Friday before last, on the flashback episode of the Drivetime Podcast, I was lucky enough to get a long conversation in with former Dolphins linebacker and Rookie of the Year A. J. Dewey. If you haven't checked out that episode, go ahead and scroll back to the Friday, June nineteenth edition of the Drivetime podcast. And the purpose of that show was to go more in depth on the highly underrated career of longtime Dolphins defensive

coordinator Bill arns Barger. Arnsbarger was the architect of many a great Dolphins defenses and the ultimate balancing mechanism for coach Sula in those days and all those Dolphins wins

and championship titles. So arns Barger was up against some stiff competition for this award, the Paul Zimmerman dot ter Z Award, a lifetime achievement awarded each year to one of the league's legendary assistant coaches, and among his competition was a few other defensive coordinators, five to be exact, including Buddy Ryan of the famed eighty five Bears defense, the Monsters of the Midway, and co winner Romeo Crenell.

So Bill Arnsberger and Romeo Crenell were announced just a little bit ago at one o'clock eastern on Monday, as the co winners of this award, and for some reference points, there are almost always multiple winners per year for this award. I mean, you've got what twelve to fifteen assistants per staff per team across the league, and that's not counting quality control or positional assistance within the position group thirty two teams, fifteen of them per team, give or take.

That's a lot of assistant coaches out there in the history of the National Football League. But the names on this list I think really bring a great deal of respect and honoring to the late great Bill Arnsparger, back to team Jim Johnson, Howard mud Fritz Schermer, and Ernie's dam Peas a lot of you die hearts probably recognize all of those names as legendary assistant coaches. As we go further down this list, some even more recognizable names

like in ten Dick Lebou, Tom Moore, Dante Scarneckia. I mean, Tom Moore and Dante Scarneckia are synonymous with terrific offensive line coaching, and Dick le Beau was what, for forty fifty years a great defensive coordinator in the NFL. Seen Monty Kiffen, one of the pioneers of the Tampa two defense.

Wade Phillips. We know plenty about him, so you're kind of starting to recognize this pattern of when these coaches get honored here for this award seventeen Bud Carsoneen, Joe Bugle, and Emmett Thomas, and then last year nineteen Gunther Cunningham and former Dolphins special team's assistant Mike west Off. And then Bill Arnsparker joins Elite Company along with Romeo Crannell, bringing a spotlight to Arns Barger's elite resume and winning

just came with the territory for Arns Barger. He had a twenty one year run as an NFL assistant, a couple of stops in Miami. He was there with the Baltimore Colts with Don Shula and then went to a Super Bowl again with the Chargers in nine. He had a regular season mark of to fourteen eighty five and six. That's a seven twelve win percentage. He averaged ten wins per year, and remember a lot of those seasons were

in seasons where the NFL only played fourteen games. His team earned trips to the NFL Championship Game or Super Bowl in seven of his twenty one seasons as a defensive coordinator, three thirty three batting average on getting to the championship game, including one trip to the NFL's Final Four with each of those teams that he coached in

the Colts, Dolphins, and Chargers. He was the architect of not one, but two defenses that had legendary nicknames, both the No Name Defense and the Killer B Defense, and that No Name defense in nineteen seventy two and nineteen seventy three brought back two Super Bowls, lost only two games, and allowed an average of just eleven point five points per game over the course of those two seasons cumulatively. He also was the innovator of the three four defense.

His five three defense name for Bob Mathieson was basically a precursor to what became known as the three four defense in the NFL. A. J. Dewey told me he thinks the Arnsbarger invented the zone blitz. We talked about him being more of a chalkboard guy over a screamer. Because of that, he earned the nickname one More Real for his desire to get back into the film room and just watch more tape on defense and offense, pick out tendencies and be the great coach that he was.

We also had a great story on that podcast on the June nineteenth edition of the Drive Time podcast where Dewey told us about a time when arnst Burger stood up to Shula, which just didn't happen back in those days. You did not dare come out the late great Don Shula. So those two guys together legends on the Miami Dolphins coaching staff. Bill arnst Barger co recipient of the doctor Z Lifetime Achievement Award for NFL Assistant Coaches. Cheers to you,

coach Arensberger. You definitely earned it with that phenomenal resume. Alright, let's go ahead and fast forward here a few decades and dive into something that struck my fancy over the weekend. Can you tell yet that I'm a new dad that pretty much just sits around on weekends researching football information in between diaper changes and very very successful burpings. More

on that in just one moment. So, as you well know by now, I'm getting extensively back through the nineteen season as I can, and this weekend brought a pair of games back in front of my eyes for the first time since I did the film breakdown on the Tuesday after the game, so I watched the broadcast version. Then they all twenty two and that was it. I stored those tapes away forever because they just weren't fun tapes.

I wasn't intrigued to dive back in well until now, because I'm a completist and I have to get through every game or else I find myself. I find it as a failure of an experiment. So it's always nice to put those ones away for some time and then

circle back. So that's where we are right now. And wouldn't you know it, I came away with another lesson, perhaps a theory, or actually maybe let's just go ahead and call it general information that we can gleam, always be learning, and nothing teaches you about yourself better than a little bit of self scouting. Right, that's true in football, it's true in life. So we do it here with

the nineteen season. So the hypothesis after watching these two games it was home for Buffalo and at Cleveland in November last year, and the hypothesis was that the lack of balance on offense led to the handful of games last year from Miami where they just were not all

that competitive on the scoreboard. We've raved on and on on this show about the strong finish and the fact that Flora has helped rally the squad together along with Ryan Fitzpatrick's galvanizing force in the locker room, and to dig out of that O and seven start and finish the final nine game games with a winning record over that period. We have given praise for that several times,

and well deserved. But before I went and looked into the detail, I hypothesized that the offensive resurgence last year was directly correlated to some semblance of balance on the Miami offense. All coaches want that want that balance, all coaches preach that balance, and I think that's a semblance of what Miami got to help them get into the

top half of the league an offensive rank. And again, the offensive resurgence was due mostly in large part to the work of Ryan Fitzpatrick, and you watch the way he played. I tweeted about it over the weekend. I will continue to to really corroborate Pro Football Focuses ranking of Ryan Fitzpatrick as a top ten graded passer last year from the time he came back in against Washington to the end of the season. It just beared out

on tape. You go back to my twenty nineteen film review, and this was up on locked on Dolphins dot com where I said that Ryan Fitzpatrick's greatest strength was the trust in his eye. He's talked about this at that stage a fourteen year NFL career, how there just isn't a whole lot he hasn't seen, both in the way coverages will attack him and play him, and by the terminology and the different schemes and different systems on offense. There just isn't a whole lot that Ryan Fitzpatrick hasn't seen.

So he comes in here, digests the offense, gets it down pat and starts making plays and ripping the football with confidence and assertiveness and putting the football on spots based upon his knowledge of the offense and man. It just it bared out on film all throughout the back

half of nineteen. And you look at some of the pressure numbers that Fitzpatrick dealt with last season and the way he was able to get rid of the football by throwing it to a spot, by extending plays, doing that little shoulder role where he got out of pressure and escaped and made plays off script that way. It was pretty constant in ten. So let's not take anything away from what Ryan Fitzpatrick did at quarterback last year

for Miami. It was a massive ingredient in the resurgence to finish out the year five and four over the final nine games. But he was also the team's leading rusher in nineteen And I want to point back to a couple of quotes from Brian Flora's last year in training camp talking about what he likes on the offensive line, what type, what brand of football he wants to play on the offensive side, And here's a quote about an offensive line change that was made last year in camp. Look,

we want a tough, smart, physical offensive line. Philosophically, that's what we're looking for. We can get into techniques if you want, but it boils down to hand placement, footwork, getting your hands inside and protecting inside out. All of those things are just the basic basic fundamentals of offensive line play. That is what I'm looking for. Communicating that along with the communication along the offensive line, combination, blocks in the run game, passing off twist in the past game,

all of those things go into it. Then the overall communication along the offensive line, that's what we're looking for. We're really looking for that at all positions, offensively, defensively, and in the kicking game. There's a few different things that play there, but tough, smart, discipline, and fundamentally sound that's what I'm looking for out there out of the offensive line group. And that was a few days into

training camp. But here's a quote from the first day, right before the Dolphins hit the practice field on a Saturday morning for some physical practice, some padded practices, the first padded practice and training camp under Brian Floors with the Miami Dolphins, and the question a follow up question to another I guess inquiry about the fundamentals of the game and playing with pads on for the first time

at practice. The follow up question was, so, when the pads go on, does that begin to separate who the physical guys are and who needs to be more physical? And coach's answer was absolutely. I think at the end of the day, in football, you can never forget about the physicality of the game. It's something that from the early days, from the beginning of the game, that's really what it's all about. It's a physical sport. It's about being tough, being gritty, but at the same time being smart,

being disciplined. And then the conversation went on to more aspects of how they want to teach about defeating blocks before you actually get there to make the tackle, because you can tackle all you want, coach says, but if you can't beat the block, you're not gonna get there

for the tackle. So he talks about that physical aspect of the game and how for him as a player when he was at Boston College, taking on a fullback and adding another layer to the physicality of the position playing inside that box as a linebacker really added an extra element and made things more tough on him as a player. So you see that experience bear out there for the Dolphins and the way they want to be a physical team upfront. Flores did not beat around the

bush about that fact. They want to be a physical team, as coach laid out here at this press conference. So the physicality of the game, running the football, playing inside with linebackers, defensive lineman, fullbacks, all this stuff, it's very important. And so what I did was go back and look at some of the coaching changes and look at some of the ranks associated with those coaches on staff now and how they produced in the running game or their

teams produced in the running game. And I started with, of course, chan Gaily, because how else would you start other than the guy that calls the plays, the offensive coordinator, and how it might create more balance on offense, so Ryan Fitzpatrick and the quarterbacks can do their thing along with the running backs creating positive yardage in the running game.

Because the games where Miami was competitive and efficient on offense, there was a semblance of balance in the running game along with Fitzpatrick doing his thing, and the games that were not that way early in the season especially, there

was no balance in the running game. And the two games that I thought were kind of quote unquote stinkers late in the season, after Miami kind of got things figured out and got themselves dug out of that initial hole to start the year, those two games against Cleveland and Buffalo provided a far greater challenge to run the ball than the other games laid down the stretch at

the end of the season. So when you really split the season into two halves, you basically have that first portion of the year where I'm gonna go ahead and use the Buffalo game at Buffalo. From that Buffalo game onto New England, the Dolphins average three hundred and fifty six yards per game. If you remove the Buffalo and Cleveland games, the home Buffalo game and Cleveland in November, they had eighty three point three rushing yards per game in those games, but the three that would have ranked

fifteen in the NFL. And actually, if we pushed that date range back to those final nine games when Miami did finish five and four, it's right in that same range. They would have been the seventeenth ranked offense over those final nine games. And the inspiration for this little research

study was watching the second Buffalo game. And really those two Buffalo games serve as a perfect measuring stick, a perfect juxtaposition for how the offense functioned from from one portion of the season or from one style of game to the next. And ironically, and this is where I love context, the scores weren't that different at the end of those games thanks to a ridiculous onside kick return for a touchdown in the game at Buffalo. I mean,

how often does that happen, especially in the NFL. So in the game in Buffalo, the Dolphins rushed for one hundred and nine yards, and it wasn't throw away yardage late in the game. It was early down success. It was success in the first half, keeping the offense on the field, giving the defense rest, all those things that come with a positive running game, and that game saw

the Dolphins enter the fourth quarter with a lead. It also saw the Dolphins on the doorstep first and goal from the two yard line away from making it a twenty one to nine game late in the third quarter against a team that was four and one, so they were really playing well that day. Then the game in Miami against Buffalo was only a seven point difference in terms of the end result from the game in Buffalo.

This one in Miami was thirty seven to twenty, where Buffalo score late again to kind of put the game out of reach, but the game was never really that close. The Dolphins did make it close at the end of the first half with an onside recovery, but then they fumbled the very next play, and then Miami bounces back again with a long Jakeem Grant one hundred and two yard kickoff return for a touchdown. So credit Miami for fighting back in that game. And they would fight back

as well in the Cleveland game. But the point of all of this was to discuss early down run success because in this game, Miami just could not get it going on the ground. You've got negative four yards on five runs on first and second down. That with that minimal production thanks to holding the Buffalo offense to field goals, the Dolphins were down just six zero. So it got me curious about run game success the rest of the way. Kind of a war and Sharp type of rundown on

early down run success. As Warren Sharp, for my money, is the czar of analytics, and he talks about this stuff all the time, how you can give yourself more of a chance through analytics and play calling decisions to set yourself up for success. So I kind of took that same approach the next week against Cleveland. We have five yards on five carries on first or second down to put you in a position where you're down zero. And I chose these games because they were the outliers

of those final nine games. The games were Miami just weren't competitive on the scoreboard. And yes, the Giants game got out of hand late, but Miami did have a second half lead in that game and drove the length of the field throughout the course of that game. They just bogged down in the red zone. So I didn't consider that one to be a severely outmatched game, both

on the field and the scoreboard. And this is not some form of excuse making, just illustrating the point that early down run success was a major factor, probably the biggest, second biggest factor, rather aside from fits just playing really really good football during Miami's turnaround. So how do we fix that? Well, A good start is signing the NFL's third leading rusher since he entered the league in in

Jordan Howard. It's trading for a running back that averages over five yards per carry in his career in Matt Brita. It's signing to quality free agent offensive lineman and drafting three guys at the same spot. Three of those five total editions weighing in at three hundred and thirty pounds

or more. So, they make some personnel changes, they make some changes to the coaching staff, and really what sparked all of this, what really brought this all together, was a comment by Jay Fiedler on the Fish Tank podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network talking about Chan Gailey when he was with the Dolphins back in the early two thousands and those run games with Lamar Smith behind Jay Fiedler there with the Dolphins, and we talked

about being a teacher and teaching the running game and really paying attention to the fine details and all the preparation. Get a load of this quote from Jay Fiedler on the Fish Tank podcast talking about his former o C and now current Dolphins o C Chan Gailey. Yes, you know what Chan Chan was, you know, tremendous a teacher

the game. Uh, you know, just the fundamental I mean I remember, you know, the first thing I kind of uh noticed when we were going through install and everything was you know how precise he was in the run game with run blocking. And I learned a ton just on how run schemes, uh, you know operate it. Uh, you know, just going through uh you know, with with Chan Gailey on that just you know where where a fullback should fit in on a block against the linebacker.

You know how how the running backs should read those And it certainly helped as a quarterback knowing you know, when you do at the audible between different runs. You know what what's your best look, you know, going against a certain defense, and what's your best run to get to with that? And then you know, the next thing that you know, impressed me a great deal about Chan was, you know, his ability to game plan and create matchups. Uh. Look, he kept a lot of the stuff that we did

pretty simple. Uh in terms of the plays that we had going you know, we didn't have uh, you know, ninety five players going into a game, but you know, he made sure that that we were scattered out so well that you know, he created the right formation and motion to get a great matchup on a simple play. And uh. You know, So there's Jay talking about Chan Gailey kind of his approach to the game and the way he taught Ja so much about the running game.

And so I wanted to go back and look at some of the ranks of Chan gailey led offenses in the rushing department. And luckily for me, my buddy Kevin Dern, former co host of the analysis podcast Good Friend of Mine, he compiled Chan Gailey's offensive numbers from the times he was a head coach and o c recently in the NFL. And we go back to Sten with the Jets one

hundred and twelve point six yards per game. That was twelve for a five and eleven football team, and granted they were the twenty seventh ranked team in passing that year, so the rushing offense really carried the water for their offense. The Jets in one hundred and sixteen point eight rushing yards per game that was eleventh in the NFL for a ten and six team. That created balance for the

thirteenth ranked passing offense in the NFL. With the Bills for three years two thousand twelve, one thirty eight point six yards per game that was six in the NFL. Five yards per carry they were twenty five in the past, so again the running game carries the water for a six and ten team two thousand, eleven hundred and twenty point six yards per game that was thirteen in the NFL. Four point nine yards per carry for a six and ten team that ranked fifteen in passing, So again more

balanced there. And then his first year in Buffalo one oh seven point five eighteen ranked rushing offense, four point three yards per carry, twenty four ranked passing offense a four and twelve football team. And then we go back to the Chiefs in two thousand eight with Tyler Thigpen. You all recall that great Dolphins Chiefs game from Week

sixteen where Miami rallied from behind. He was the o C for that Chiefs club that had a hundred and fifteen rushing yards per game, sixteenth in the NFL, four point eight yards per carry for a four and twelve team that was twenty four in passing. So the running game consistency for Chan Giles offenses has always been there. You bring him in hopefully he can get some of

that production here with Miami in twenty and beyond. And Chan was not the only addition to the offensive staff this year, as we continue on with offensive line coach Stephen Marshall, who was with Chan Gailey from and seen.

He also was there in New York in seventeen when Chan had already moved on, so three year stint there with the Jets, and in his last six NFL seasons, chant or Stephen Marshall Rather's offensive lines ranked top ten and sacks allowed on four of those six occasions and another another year in the top fifteen, so consistently top

half of the league offensive lines and past protection. He was promoted to full time offensive line coach in Houston two thousand five, after serving as an assistant for three and a half years there. In two thousand seven, he was hired as the Browns offensive line coach. They ranked tenth and rushing that year. He would then return back to college before joining on with the Packers for a year before he got to that Jets job. In total,

he's been coaching offensive lines for forty years. Tons of experience, tons of different scheme knowledge and experience there as well for Stephen Marshall Josh Grizzard, he now steps into the vacancy left by Carl Durrell who took a head coaching

job with Colorado. Out Here in the Pack twelve and we had Jachem Grant on interview which will be on the podcast later this week, I believe, where he talked about Josh Grizzard being there since Joachim was drafted, and Jachim talked about how instrumental Josh Grizzard has been in teaching the receiver's certain techniques, certain fundamentals, understanding the comprehensive notes behind the offense so he can relay it to

those receivers, and Joachim mentioned that Grizzard was always available no matter what time of night he was in the playbook. He would send a quick text and he would get a reply instantly with a good answer for his question. So that bears well for the whole teaching aspect of this Dolphins coaching staff. And then we take a look at new Dolphins quarterbacks coach Robbie Brown, and you look at coach Brown's resume, it's widespread. He served on special

projects between coaches and the analytics departments. He was a defensive assistant, he was offensive quality control. He's been an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, so doing a little bit of everything on the offensive side of the staff. And now he'll come to Miami as a Dolphins new quarterbacks coach under Brian Flores. Okay, one quick story that just has to be told before we sign off for the day.

I mentioned diaper changes and burping as a father, which I'll be honest, my least favorite part of this whole parenting thing is the actual burping aspect of having a new child. I can take the thirty minute scream session in my ear because she wants to be with her mother, But burping is just a lose lose for everybody involved.

It never gets on. The intended rag gets up to our laundry duties tenfold here in the Wingfield house, and it just perpetuates a cycle of feeding, burping, sleeping, and you do it all over again, seven or eight times every single day, it seems. So. My daughter had an upset stomach on Saturday and it was coming out like a fountain. She got it on her mom on one side, then round two gets the other side. So Mrs Wingfield sitting in her chair, the rocking chair is just covered.

It's all over the chair. The baby is lying there on the bopy, the thing the support her while she feeds, and my wife asked me for some help, just to pick up the baby so she can get cleaned up and get herself situated. As I bend down and mind you, literally every single burt rag we own at this point is in the hamper. I'm convinced she's all out of

materials to give, so I dive in fearlessly. I put both hands around her back so I can support her neck and lift her up off the bobby, and like some sort of jet fuel propulsion, the pressure on her back brings about round three, and now normally it just kind of falls out right, like isn't that how it is for other parents? It just comes out of their mouth and you clean it up well. In the words of the great lead corso not so fast, my friend.

As I'm hunched over lifting her towards me, a fire hose explodes out like cam wake, coming out of the four point stance in the wide nine, like a Hall of Fame athlete. In that moment, it all slowed down for me. I can see the stream of freshly ingested milk charging towards my face with the ferocity of the Persian army in the film three hundred. But I wasn't gonna be able to spartan kick this Xerxes away. I'd have to go full Keanu Reeves and avoid that shot

with elusiveness, and I did. At its peak. I swear it was within one inch, maybe even less, of my nose. My wife and I laughed about it afterwards. I was able to get myself composed and get to work on changing the poor kids soaked onesie. I told my wife if that would have hit me, we'd have a much bigger mess on our hands, a grown man size mess. If you know what I mean, because I would not have be able to handle that situation had that stream

hit me in the face. So that was my weekend, and that's gonna be our time for this show today. Father's parents out there, hit me up on Twitter. I want to hear all your close call stories or even better, your stories where you are not as fortunate as me in that moment on Saturday. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast Asked, Spotify, tuned in, wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review.

Follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins, check out the fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up.