Dave Hyde: The Dolphins’ Sunday isn’t just about Sunday, considering Chargers’ speed trap last year

Don’t kid yourself: Thinking is hard. Out-thinking is harder. And a cerebral chunk of Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel’s offseason involved thinking about how to out-think Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley’s winning defensive scheme from last December.

McDaniel allowed how it came up, “over the course of the offseason at least one-seventeenth of the time, divvied up amongst the other games.”

But let’s be real. Staley probably will try a similar receiving-jamming, middle-clogging, speed-neutralizing strategy in Sunday’s opener that took the air out of the Dolphins last December. The simple strategy:

“Don’t let fast guys run down the field,” was the strategy as Staley said it after that Chargers win.

So, did McDaniel find a way to let his fast guys run down the field in the offseason? If so, the sky’s the limit to the Dolphins season, just as the talk has been this summer.

But if Staley is successful again, if he delivers the antidote to this offense, then look what’s waiting: New England master-strategist Bill Belichick in Game 2, a strong Denver defense in Game 3 and a trip to Buffalo in Game 4.

Sunday, in other words, isn’t just about Sunday. The secret to McDaniel’s offense last season wasn’t just making quarterback Tua Tagovailoa tick or matching his accuracy with the rare talent of Tyreek Hill and fellow receiver Jaylen Waddle.

The secret sauce was where the Dolphins attacked. Tagovailoa ranked second in the league in throws to the middle of the field last season, as Warren Sharp’s analytics calculated. Tagovailoa ranked 22nd in throws to the outside the numbers on the field.

Football often looks like a vast series of multi-complexities. But those number simplify it. They’re why Staley jammed the Dolphins’ fast receivers and clogged the middle of the field by not blitzing spare defenders.

Maybe they’re why Tagovailoa completed 10 of 28 passes for 135 yards. Maybe they’re Exhibit A in McDaniel needing to run the ball more, since the Dolphins did just 19 times for 92 yards. Maybe it was one game.

“It wasn’t like they reinvented defense,’’ McDaniel said Monday. “It was more that their guys understood their issues in each individual coverage and really played in a competitive spirit. I thought there were a lot of 50/50 balls that went the way of the Chargers last year.”

Hill expects to see the same Chargers scheme. Maybe he even wants to, consider the Dolphins had all offseason to combat it. He’s the most important player on the Dolphins, a talent no defense could stop. Except this one.

“From their side, they did a great job,’’ he said of the Chargers. “So, if it’s broke, don’t fix it.”

If anything, the Chargers must be more tempted to try the same. They were missing Pro Bowlers in defensive end Joey Bosa, safety Derwin James and cornerback J.C. Jackson last year. They still have 6-foot-2 cornerback Michael Davis, who played press coverage on the smaller Hill.

The Dolphins, in fact, are smaller and faster at receiver than a year ago. Braxton Berrios, at 5-9, becomes the third receiver with the 5-9 Hill and 5-10 Waddle. McDaniel’s receivers are The McNuggets.

“When you let fast guys run down the field — with as fast as they are — and you let them run through zones with no one around, it turns into a track meet,’’ Staley said last year. “Guess what, you’re not as fast as they are. No one is.”

There are other sub-plots. New Dolphins defensive coach Renaldo Hill was the Chargers defensive coordinator last year. Does he bring some intel on where to attack?

McDaniel, too, was the butt of a Chargers joke this offseason. When the schedule was released, the team’s social-media staff framed the opener with an anime of McDaniel sneakily vaping on the sideline, just as he did in the Buffalo playoff game. What’s more surprising: an NFL coach hiding a vape in his coat cuff or another team mocking it?

“A lot of creative people doing creative things in 2023, which is pretty creative,’’ McDaniel said of his reaction to the Chargers video.

The creative thinking for Sunday’s game will have implications beyond Sunday. Do the Chargers have the NFL’s cure to the Dolphins’ speed at receiver? Or do the Dolphins open this season by showing an all-system-go remedy for this year?.