The day after the season ended a month ago, Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores decided to fire offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea and it raised a lot of eye brows because it was his first year and frankly I thought he did as well as anyone could considering the lack of talent on offense. The passing game was clicking despite inconsistent offensive line play and no running game. We may never know what went on behind the scenes with O’Shea maybe he was in over his head for the job or had other issues, but it was clear Flores wanted to make a change and didn’t waste any time doing so the day after the season.
— DolphinsTalk.com (@DolphinsTalk) January 30, 2020
However the biggest surprise was who Flores hired to replace him in Chan Gailey. Gailey was the Dolphins offensive coordinator for 2 seasons from 2000-2001 before becoming the head coach at Georgia Tech. Gailey did a nice job as offensive coordinator in his two years, but that was almost 20 years ago and he’s been out of the league for 2 years since his last stop with the New York Jets. He’s known as an offensive innovator bringing the spread offense into the NFL back in his days with the Pittsburgh Steelers and for running the football. I have no problem with Gailey as an offensive coordinator or what he has done. The problem I have is the Dolphins are going to be bringing in a young quarterback next season and Gailey doesn’t have a history of developing young quarterbacks. When he was head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, he had Troy Aikman on the end of his career. With his stops with the Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and Jets, he had journeyman quarterbacks in Jay Fiedler, Trent Edwards, and Ryan Fitzpatrick, but never developed a young quarterback in the draft. An offensive coordinator and his staff work hand in hand with the quarterback. With the Dolphins going to bring in a young quarterback this off season it gives me pause to wonder if Gailey is the right fit considering he has never developed one. He does have familiarity with Fitzpatrick which is good, but in his time with the Jets he had 2 young quarterbacks in Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg neither quarterback developed under his watch with the Jets. With his lack of developing young quarterbacks what gives me confidence that he will buck that trend?
Gailey will bring a commitment to the run which is definitely something the Dolphins need because teams will catch on to their offense not being able to run the ball. Plus Fitzpatrick has never demonstrated in his career putting together back to back seasons of good consistent play. The Dolphins running attack this past season was a franchise history worse so the team can’t do worse.
The other concern I have is Gailey’s offenses in his career haven’t used the tight end in the passing game and it concerns me how this will affect Mike Gesicki? Gesicki had a tremendous second year and showed off pass catching ability that showed why the Dolphins drafted him in the second round in 2018. Gailey primarily uses his tight ends as blocker which isn’t Gesicki’s strength. Now Gesicki isn’t your traditional tight end. He can be lined up in the slot and on the outside to create miss matches with the defense. My question is if Gailey knows how to adapt will he move Gesicki around to get him involved in the passing game considering his history of not using the tight ends in his offense?
The Dolphins gained a lot of momentum at the end of the season with their passing game and with the resources they have this off season with draft picks and cap space they should be able to add significant talent to this offense. I just hope the offense doesn’t regress under Gailey with his lack of developing a young quarterback and not using the tight end under his previous stops. I hope I am wrong, but until I see it on the field I remain unsure about this hire.
