The investigation into what went wrong with the Dolphins this season will be long and painful. They might point to the freezing weather in Kansas City and the mountain of season-ending injuries as the reason they fell at the first hurdle of the playoffs, but such thinking ignores the problems that plagued the team for the remainder of the season. season. They couldn’t beat good teams. They burned draft picks on players who couldn’t contribute to the stretch. The defense, which promised to be one of the best in the league, was inconsistent.
But those issues linger on the edge of the biggest one: Should the team draft Tua Tagovailoa as its long-term quarterback? We now have plenty of evidence that Tagovailoa is a good quarterback. He can thrive if you place him in a point-and-shoot role with the ideal supporting cast and a great point guard. But when things go wrong – when he is missing key pieces, when he has to improvise, when the offensive line is under too much pressure – he folds.
Relating to: The NFL has never seen anything like the Eagles’ warp-speed collapse | Bryan Armen Graham
Options beyond Tagovailoa are limited. The team could look at trading Justin Fields. They could make a move on Kirk Cousins in free agency. But Cousins is coming off an Achilles injury, and despite Fields’ promises, Tagovailoa is a more seamless fit in Mike McDaniel’s offense.
Miami has a lot of talent and a good coaching staff. But they found themselves in one of the worst places in the NFL: quarterback purgatory. Tagovailoa is too good to continue but too limited to overcome flawed circumstances.
Dallas Cowboys: The end of Mike McCarthy?
They were pure Cowboys. A 12-win season and a disastrous playoff loss. Long footage of a confused, angry Jerry Jones turning to his son in his suite. Stephen, Do you have Belichick’s number?
It wasn’t hard to guess this. During McCarthy’s time coaching, he ran excellent offenses while managing teams that disbanded in the postseason. Their team collapses when things start to go wrong in major areas.
Dallas’ loss shouldn’t rest solely on the head coach’s shoulders. Dak Prescott has failed in the postseason once again. Dan Quinn appeared to be spending more time preparing for head coaching interviews than studying the Green Bay Packers offense. Green Bay’s use of movement and rushing, the foundation of Matt LaFleur’s offense, stunned the Cowboys defense. Packers tight end Luke Musgrave averaged (AVERAGE!) 9.71 yards per carry per snap, A record in the Next Generation Statistics era. You read that right: Tight end nearly averaged first down separation in every photo.
However, being ill-prepared and not being able to recover from defeats is a situation that reflects on the coach. Why did the team look so exhausted from the opening kickoff? Why were CeeDee Lamb and Prescott, the most productive offensive-quarterback duo in the league this season, bickering from first throw to last?
McCarthy has many excellent qualities. Guiding a team through the postseason isn’t one of them. It’s time for Dallas to look for a new coach to lead a talented team to the top.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Will they find a quarterback?
Please toast to a year in which Mike Tomlin continued his ‘no losing season’ streak while coming back in the first round of the playoffs.
Following his departure from Pittsburgh in the postseason, there were rumors that Tomlin might resign with one year remaining on his contract. When asked about the status of his deal at the post-match press conference, the reporter left the room before finishing his question.
Reports now indicate that Tomlin and the Steelers are working on an extension. Bringing Tomlin back is a win; He remains one of the best coaches in the game. But it doesn’t answer Pittsburgh’s thorniest question. They need to find a new quarterback and Tomlin needs to take a new approach on offense.
Few franchises are as insular as the Steelers. It’s time for Tomlin to bring in an outside voice to pair with a new quarterback. Kenny Pickett doesn’t have the tools to make a difference in a conference that requires A+ quarterback play. While the Steelers are unlikely to make a splash moving up in the draft, they should be the first port of call for veteran quarterbacks looking to make a trade this offseason or who are free to move in free agency.
The Steelers have young talent on their roster. If you’re power ranking Cousins’ destinations today (excluding Minnesota), the Steelers should be at the top of the list.
Philadelphia Eagles: How will they fix the defense?
The end of the Eagles’ season was a massive failure. No team has fallen this far, this quickly in one season.
In some ways (sorry Eagles fans), it was beneficial that things went so wrong in the end. If the Eagles had limped through a playoff game or picked up a few wins at the end of the regular season, they could have patched the cracks in the system.
Philly needs a complete reset. Whether Nick Sirianni will remain head coach is up for debate, but the rest of the Eagles’ coaching staff must be feeling nervous. Philadelphia failed to develop a consistent offense throughout the season and fell back into its own worst habits, providing zero solutions to fundamental problems.
On defense things were somewhat worse. Tons of blame will be laid at the doorstep of Sean Desai and Matt Patricia, the two DCs assigned to pilot the unit. However, placing the blame solely on this couple is a fiasco. The defense has failed this year for many reasons: poor team building, philosophical flaws, and inability to master the details. The team’s rush to pass has disappeared. The corners fell off the cliff. The middle of the defense (against the run and pass) was a sieve.
Poor coaching should take most of the blame, but even solid coaching wouldn’t have stopped players like James Bradberry and Kevin Byard from sniffing out simple tackles.
Ultimately, however, the Eagles fielded a roster that did not fit the personnel’s defensive design. This goes for the team’s GM, Howie Roseman, as well as the coaching staff. Solving these problems during the season requires top-level talent and top-level coaching. The Eagles had neither at the end of the season.
It will be difficult to fix the issues in one offseason, and the task will be made even more difficult by the offensive concerns that need to be addressed. It’s going to be a long offseason in Philadelphia.
Cleveland Browns: How do they handle the offense?
Cleveland couldn’t legislate for those against the Houston Texans. Their vaunted defense was destroyed by Houston’s young offense. Even when they closed on CJ Stroud, the rookie quarterback put on his cape and still chopped them up.
A disappointing ending shouldn’t overshadow a great year. The Browns have proven that they can be a playoff team and a team that can compete in the division with above-average quarterback play. If Deshaun Watson can come back and deliver a close replica of what Joe Flacco provided.
There will also be an injection of new blood. The Browns announced Wednesday that they have parted ways with Alex Van Pelt, Kevin Stefanski’s longtime offensive partner. With Watson back, the Browns need a new perspective. The Van Pelt-Watson partnership was largely a battle of two opposing offensive philosophies. Because of his massive, fully guaranteed contract, Cleveland is committed to Watson, no matter how bad he’s looked for much of this season. Finding a coach who better fits Watson’s perspective on the game will be key to the Browns capitalizing on the potential they have left at quarterback.
LA Rams: How aggressive will they be in the offseason?
The Rams have been very successful this season. They took an excellent Lions team to the brink of the playoffs with the youngest defense in the NFL (by far). Matthew Stafford has played as consistently as any quarterback in the league this season, responding to any concerns about his long-term health. They found the ideal receiver to pair with Cooper Kupp in Puka Nacua.
Now the Rams hierarchy is left with a choice: Do they push some chips in the middle and try to squeeze the last bits out of the Stafford-Kupp-Aaron Donald axis? Or will they continue to develop for the future by bringing in a backup for Stafford at quarterback and preserving some cap flexibility for the future?
The Rams enter the offseason in a strong position. They will have $40 million in cap space, along with all of their day one and day two draft picks for the first time in years, and could open up much more.
They can choose any path they want. Given the resumes of Les Snead and Sean McVay, whichever they choose will likely be the right one.