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Dolphins film study: What stood out in Mike McDaniel’s coaching debut

If first-year Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel has it his way, his offense’s Week 1 performance against the New England Patriots will be the worst of the season, setting the foundation for a series of outings that progressively improve.

“If you want to be a good team in this league, you have to be playing your best football in the end of November and in December months,” he said Monday. “So that’s what we’re gearing towards and there were definitely no celebrations or parties today.”

In the Dolphins’ 20-7 season-opening win over the New England Patriots, the Dolphins’ new-look offense was productive but not spectacular. It was an outing good enough to leave one satisfied given the final outcome of the game but intrigued for what the future could look like.

Here’s what stood out in a review of the game.

YAC

Throughout the summer, McDaniel and offensive players emphasized how important it was to put pass-catchers in a position to maximize yards after the catch. When McDaniel was an assistant in San Francisco, the 49ers often ranked at or near the top of the NFL in that stat.

In Week 1, both receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle ranked in the top 10 of the NFL in average yards after catch above expectation, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, a measure of a receiver’s YAC to their expected YAC when they caught the ball.

Waddle’s 42-yard touchdown catch and run before the end of the first half was a prime example of what McDaniel hopes to achieve throughout the season.

Facing fourth-and-7 with 24 seconds left in the half, the Patriots appeared to use a Cover-1 scheme, a man-to-man concept with one deep safety, and a “lurk” defender — linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley — hovering in a zone in the middle of the field to ward off any crossing routes.

Waddle, running a slant route from the slot, beat cornerback Jalen Mills inside, and at the time quarterback Tua Tagovailoa released the ball from his hands, two other defenders — Bentley and safety Kyle Dugger — were also in close vicinity to Waddle.

But Dugger took a bad angle at Waddle, who reportedly runs a 4.4 40-yard dash, and that was all he needed. He sped past the three defenders and was doing his “Waddle” dance in the end zone seconds later.

What should have been an intermediate gain was the biggest of the day for the Dolphins because of a misstep by the defense and Waddle’s elite speed.

Tyreek’s touches

Hill was the Dolphins’ biggest acquisition of the offseason and McDaniel made sure to showcase Hill in his Dolphins debut. Hill led the team with 12 targets and got another touch on a carry, which resulted in a 6-yard gain.

While Tagovailoa’s ability to get the ball downfield to Hill was debated throughout the offseason, Hill’s last season with the Kansas City Chiefs ironically saw his average depth of target decrease to a career-low 9.1 yards, according to Pro Football Reference.

In Week 1, Hill’s average depth of target was 9.3, which ranked 46th of 72 players with at least three targets (Waddle ranked 43rd, with an average depth of target of 9.5).

Of Hill’s 12 targets, two were behind the line of scrimmage, five were between 1 and 10 yards downfield and five were 10-plus yards downfield. Tagovailoa completed two of the passes to Hill that traveled at least 10 yards.

Though a small sample size, the addition of Hill already seems to have had an impact on Tagovailoa’s deep passing attempts. Tagovailoa averaged 8 air yards per attempt in Week 1, up from 7 yards last season, which ranked third-fewest of all qualifying quarterbacks.

Personnel

Fullback Alec Ingold didn’t play in the preseason but he had a big role in his Dolphins debut. The offense used 21 personnel (two running backs, one tight end, one wide receiver) on 20 of its 59 plays, and primarily had Ingold as the second back. It was the Dolphins’ second-highest used grouping on Sunday.

Ingold’s role wasn’t just reduced to blocking, either. He ran nine routes, was targeted twice, including once on a downfield pass along the sideline, and caught one pass. He also carried the ball on a third-down conversion.

Ingold said he watched a lot of film of Kyle Juszczyk, who is used as a hybrid tight end in San Francisco, to learn the offense. His responsibilities on Sunday mirrored that of the Pro Bowl fullback.

The high involvement of Ingold also meant a reduction in two-tight-end sets to just 11 plays. The Dolphins led the NFL in that grouping last season. Mike Gesicki was most impacted in Week 1, trailing Durham Smythe in snaps (25 to 37) and seeing only one target, a 1-yard catch.

McDaniel said he would have hoped to get more targets for Gesicki, who has struggled at times to transition to more of a blocking role. However, he attributed Gesicki’s quiet afternoon to having multiple options on offense.

“That’s one of the things that happens in the course of the game,” McDaniel said, “... and the better offenses that you’re on, you don’t have to force your hand to certain players all the time and defensive presentations and the distribution of the ball gets spread.”