Open thread to discuss anything Dolphins or not Dolphins.

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Hello! Me and my family are from Sweden and we are going to Hard Rock Stadium to watch Jets vs Dolphins in december. We would like some tips om things to watch out for or things to do at the stadium, either before or after the game! I have seen some videos of Buffalo Bills tailgates, is that a thing in Miami as well?

We are a family of 4 + my partner, all 21 years plus. I did read that parking might be a issue, so we were thinking of taking a taxi or Uber, if that is easier? We are also bringing sun glasses and sunscreen.

I’m the biggest NFL-fan in the family and are also going to buy a game jersey and some merch, I would love some good suggestions! I was thinking maybe Waddle? But I do like Ramsey as well!

Happy for all or any response/tips!

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He's not a legitimate head coach in the NFL

He's regressed a little bit more every year. He's not getting any better. A year ago I thought for sure he'd get us to a super bowl in the next 5 years. That's laughable now that I think about it a year later.

All he does is stare down at his tablet. Some coaches are great coordinators but terrible head coaches. McDaniel is the latter.

GUYS STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR THEM. Tired of settling for mediocrity.

(TLDR at the bottom)

Through PFF I decided to check out how this team ranks in their screen usage as it seems that we've done an ungodly amount of screens going back to last year. The results were even worse than expected.

Through 2.5 games, 24.8% of Tua's dropbacks have been screens. That 24.8% number is the highest percentage in the league by far. The QB with the second highest screen percentage is Patrick Mahomes, who comes in at 17%, which is understandable as he's been missing his WR1,2, and RB1 for most of the season. On the other hand, we have two of the most explosive WRs in the league, and a RB who can be explosive in the passing game. The 7.8% difference between #1 and #2 is about the same difference between #2 and #30 (Jacoby Brissett, 9.1%)

Something interesting that I found is with our backup QBs we were throwing a much lower percentage of screens. With Huntley, 13.4% of his dropbacks were screens. 12.5% of Skylar Thompson's dropbacks were screens. Boyle, in his very limited play, only threw a screen on 10.3% of his dropbacks.

So why are we throwing even more screens with our starting QB than we did with our backup QBs? Why is our starting QB throwing a screen on nearly double the percentage of dropbacks as his backups?

My theory is that because teams are overplaying the middle of the field whenever Tua is in at QB, McDaniel's counter to that is the outside screen since there should be less defensive attention on the outside. When our backup QBs are in, the defenses don't overplay the middle which resulted in all those plays where receivers were actually open but Huntley or Skylar either didn't see them or weren't comfortable attempting the pass.

If you look at Tua's screen percentage this year compared to 2022, the theory would gain some credence. Back in 2022, any guesses as to where Tua ranked in the % of screens he threw? That's right, he ranked dead last, 41st out of 41 qualified QBs, coming it at 4.9%. Back then, we took the league by surprise as McDaniel debuted his vertical RPOs which absolutely destroyed teams in the middle of the field and resulted in guys being wide open every other play.

In contrast, last season it appeared the league caught up to what we like to do. The windows got much tighter or sometimes weren't even there in the middle of the field. As a result, Tua ended up throwing the 4th highest percentage of screens. And now this year, despite the O-Line playing relatively well in the games Tua has played, he's throwing for the highest percentage of screens in the league by far.

Now the big questions I have are these: Are we throwing all these screens because it's the only pass play counter McDaniel can think of to teams overplaying the middle of the field? Or are we throwing them because he doesn't think Tua can reliably throw the ball outside of the numbers?

The latter question comes because last year against the Titans, at halftime Mike Vrabel publicly said that their goal was to stack the middle of the field and force Tua to throw to the outside. In the 7.5 games with Tua under center since then, we haven't gashed our opponents with the explosive plays that our offense is built on to nearly the same degree. We've scored over 20 points once, and it was against an inept Jets team with the help of the 4 turnovers our defense caused.

It'll be interesting to see going forward if McDaniel continues his over reliance of screens or thinks of something innovative to make teams pay for overplaying the middle of the field. So far, the results of the screen spam haven't been good unless we're facing teams where we have a gigantic talent advantage against their defense.

TLDR: With Tua at QB, we're throwing the highest percentage of screens in the league by far to counter teams stacking the middle of the field, but it doesn't appear to be working very well. Is it the only thing McDaniel can think of or is the QB limiting him from other solutions?