The new voice in the room grew up around questions like the big one of the Miami Dolphins offseason. Bobby\u2019s Slowik\u2019s dad, Bob, was a defensive coordinator for four NFL teams. His youngest brother, Steve, is now a San Francisco 49ers scout.<\/p>\n
The oldest brother, Ryan, learned to walk on Florida\u2019s football field and sits the other side of the office as a Miami Dolphins defensive back coach.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve been geographically close since I was in high school,\u2019\u2019 Bobby Slowik said this spring.<\/p>\n
He was hired to help solve a mystery no one solved last year: Why couldn\u2019t a Dolphins offense built around throwing the ball downfield actually throw the ball down the field?<\/p>\n
For all the overdone talk of a new culture and national expectations heading into Sunday\u2019s opener in Indianapolis, coach Mike McDaniel\u2019s prime homework the past eight months involved cracking the riddle about his offense.<\/p>\n
The roster tells of tangible change: Two new, big guards, James Daniels and Jonah Savaiinaea, to run the ball and protect quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Two big running backs to run inside, though only rookie Ollie Gordon remains healthy.<\/p>\n
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They won\u2019t be the offense\u2019s identity, though. Not when Tagovailoa and receiver Tyreek Hill are the roster\u2019s top-paid players, and receiver Jaylen Waddle ranks seventh. That gets to why Bobby Slowik arrives in the same role he had in San Francisco when McDaniel was its run-game coordinator: senior pass game coordinator.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year is a great example that it felt like, at the very least, there was a spike into shell (defenses) across the entire NFL that I think everyone\u2019s kind of going through the process of deciphering,\u2019\u2019 Slowik said.<\/p>\n
The two-deep safety defense. The bogeyman. Is that the problem? The Dolphins faced the two-deep look on a league-high 53.1% of plays last year, according to Warren Sharp analytics. They couldn\u2019t master it when you look at the numbers.<\/p>\n
They threw only three touchdowns outside the 20-yard line. They threw 31.1% of their passes at or behind the line of scrimmage. A league-low 7% of Tua\u2019s throws went 20 yards downfield (after 14.2% and 11.4% the previous two years).<\/p>\n
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Tua missing seven starts drags all the numbers lower. But Hill and Waddle combined for only eight touchdowns after having 17 and 15 the previous two seasons. Hill averaged 1.79 yards per pattern after 3.21 and 3.85 yards the previous two year. Do you see how the Dolphins\u2019 offense shrunk?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we know is that until we threaten people in different ways that they\u2019ll try to take away (the deep passing game),\u2019\u2019 McDaniel said. \u201cSo much of our focus has been both on those throws that you crave as well as every other aspect of the game, because our teams likes faster drives and shorter drives that equal points.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dolphins ranked 20th in rushing yards per game last year. That masks how only two teams ranked worse than their 4 yards per run. McDaniel rebuilt the interior of the line for another reason, too. The Dolphins ranked 26th in pass-block win, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to control the line of scrimmage and give guys a reason to defend space that\u2019s lower or closer to the line of scrimmage,\u2019\u2019 McDaniel said. \u201cWhen you do that, things will open up.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Another riddle: Cincinnati resembled the Dolphins personnel last year. It had the 30th-ranked defense by yards, the 31st-ranked rushing offense in yards per carry, the 30th-ranked win rate in pass blocking by ESPN and not only faced the two-deep-safety look just behind the Dolphins but were blitzed the least in the league. So, all defenders were pass defending.<\/p>\n
But Cincinnati had the league\u2019s top passing game with Joe Burrow passing to Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Is it as simple as Burrow covers for his team\u2019s flaws in a manner few quarterbacks can?<\/p>\n
Keeping Tagovailoa healthy is the first part of this for the Dolphins. But what else McDaniel has cooked up will be part of Sunday\u2019s intrigue.<\/p>\n
Near the end of McDaniel\u2019s first Dolphins season, the Los Angeles Chargers\u2019 press defense was so successful other opponents quickly copied it. Opening against the Chargers in 2023, McDaniel put Tyreek Hill in motion just before the snap to beat that press \u2014 \u201ccheat motion,\u2019\u2019 as it was called.<\/p>\n
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It was copied across the league. There doesn\u2019t seem a quick answer to the two-deep defense that\u2019s been around forever. Maybe Slowik\u2019s voice in the room helps. Maybe two stronger guards helps. But this riddle awaits an answer in Sunday\u2019s opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new voice in the room grew up around questions like the big one of the Miami Dolphins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[21404,227,2792,217,7,2004,5855,14706,1577,576,262,216,251,2087,4836,6,3238,1161,252,2978,3235,3452,1089],"class_list":{"0":"post-341977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-bobby-slowik","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-defensive-coordinator","11":"tag-dolphins","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-indianapolis","14":"tag-james-daniels","15":"tag-jaylen-waddle","16":"tag-joe-burrow","17":"tag-jonah-savaiinaea","18":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","19":"tag-miami","20":"tag-miami-dolphins","21":"tag-miamidolphins","22":"tag-mike-mcdaniel","23":"tag-nfl","24":"tag-ollie-gordon","25":"tag-san-francisco","26":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","27":"tag-tee-higgins","28":"tag-the-dolphins","29":"tag-tua-tagovailoa","30":"tag-tyreek-hill"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115148171056638509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}