Your Innovative Dolphins: Using the TE

I have to admit, I was a little underwhelmed when we hired Dan Henning to run our offense.  I didn't really follow his career or anything, but the impression I got was not entirely positive.  Sure, he was a veteran coordinator with head coaching experience.  He generally seemed to produce solid results.  A friend of mine from Buffalo warned me, "Get ready to get frustrated, he is going to run the ball up the gut 3 times in a row- even if you are down 3 touchdowns."  I wasn't going to complain.  After all, the RB position was all we really knew we had at the time.  Remember, this was when we had only a cast off from Oakland, and two rookie QBs on the roster.  A heavy dose of running the ball sounded about right, until somebody could emerge as a true NFL starter.

Simply put, I have never been more wrong in my life.  Henning called some games this year that simply dropped my jaw.  Do you remember the feeling you had when you first saw the Wildcat break out against the Patriots?  And then when it was topped when Ronnie threw that TD pass? In a way, the debut of the Wildcat marked the turn around of our season.  We had an agonizingly close loss to the Jets, and an embarrassingly far loss to the Cardinals.  But we beat the hated Patriots in their own house.  Scratch that, we didn't beat them, we humiliated them.  If we could do that, what couldn't we do.

But don't worry.  I know the Wildcat was covered by the local and national media ad naseum.  I would like to take and some other, less noticed, but just as interesting concepts we saw this year.

Simply put, some of the things we did with the Tight End position were just as impressive as the Wildcat, if far less noticable.  No amount of praise is enough for the way the coaching staff was able to maximize the limited talent at its disposal, and field a consistently competitive team.  Did you know that the TE position gave us 926 receiving yards this season?  And even more impressively, it produced 11 touchdowns.  The seven from Fasano alone were more than Bess, Ginn, and Camarillo combined. 

Simply put, TE is one of the most talented positions on the roster.  Anthonly Fasano is being compared to Mark Bavaro after one season as starter.  He has shown equal ability to catch the ball and make a play, or make a punishing block.  Watching him bull over defenders on his way to the endzone is a thing of beauty.  David Martin is another big body who can catch the ball (no surprise as his college position was WR).  And then there is the UDFA out of Maryland, Joey Haynos.  At 6'-7" and almost 270 lbs, he is just a few cheeseburgers and milkshakes away from being a tackle.  And while he only caught 2 passes all season, one was for a TD.  His size alone creates a mismatch that is difficult for a defense to account for. 

But this put us in a unique situation.  What on earth do we do with these guys? 

TE has long been one of the most under utilized positions in football.  Until very recent history, teams would toss a TE in the game simply as an extra blocker.  Very rarely would a ball come their way.  Joe Gibbs is often credited with introducing the Twin TE set to football in the 80's that let the offense bring in an extra blocker, but also added the ability to give him a free release and give the QB an 'unexpected' receiver. 

The 90's saw some truly remarkable TEs (coincidentally, all in the AFC West).  Guys like Antonia Gates, Tony Gonzales, and Shannon Sharpe showed what kind of mismatches the TE position could create when you had a highly athletic threat to catch the pass.  Gates and Gonzales actually got their starts in basketball which gives you an real idea for the size and athleticism they possess.  Where you previously had what was basically a slightly undersized OT, now you have a tall, big, fast, and athletic guy who can still pancake you.  Guard him with a LB, and he'll out run him.  Guard him with a DB and they are simply too small. 

However, a lot of teams still see the TE as basically just an extra blocker.  But their loss is our gain.  The relative lack of demand as compared to wide receivers allowed us to require two very good, and one at least average player at the position.  And we put them to good use.

This team used some interesting concepts seen on other teams with great pass catching tigh ends, like the Colts with Dallas Clark.  The Dolphins could be seen several times sending David Martin out wide to create mismatches with much smaller DBs.  But this look is not particularly uncommon.

The formation that most interested me is one we saw employed against the Ravens (who by the way have their own very interesting set where they employ an extra Tackle who declares pass eligibility and lines up next to standard O-line to creat an 'unbalanced line +').  Now the reason for this formation was pretty obvious at the time.  The Ravens D-line was dominating our O-line, and we needed extra blockers.  Our solution?  Send in 3 Tight Ends.  Doesn't sound too revolutionary.  It is basically a goal line formation to provide extra blocking, but employed further back on the field.  To the casual fan, it probably looked like the Dolphins conceding that we just couldn't stop their pressure.  Any maybe that is truly what it was.  All I saw us do out of it was call some running plays.

But this formation has so much more potential.  There are articles out there in which D-coordinators basically admit that they have nightmares about a team with 3 reliable, all purpose tight ends who are willing to employ this formation.  I think instead of a desperate measure, we may have been seeing a glimpse of the future.   Why?   Imagine if you will, that Parcells has worked his magic, and we have a big, dominating Offensive line that doesn't necessarily need three extra blockers to stop a team like the Ravens from flattening our QB or to create running lanes.  Now in the running game, it is like the unbalanced line we are familiar with from the wildcat, but with even an extra blocker.  But wait, since our O-line can effectively hold back the opposing teams rushers, we don't need 3 extra blockers to have a successful running play or get off a pass.  And our TEs have shown the ability to catch passes as well as they block.  Who is to say we don't send one, two, or all three TEs out as a receiver?  Basically it could be a power running play OR it could be a spread formation!  Or anything in between the two (a max protect with two TEs, or a normal play with a TE in to block and two or 3 receivers).  And the best part is, you don't even have to decide what play you run until after you see what the D sets up for.  Do they throw in their big boys expecting a power rush?  Call an audible and send them out as receivers; more than likely there will be a mismatch in our favor on at least one of them.  Things get even more interesting when you introduce the concept of motioning a TE to the other side of the line.  Chances are there is a big slow LB on a guy like Fasano.  If you really catch the D with their pants down, you could see him out there with a DE trying to keep up with him;  that is a match up we win 99% of the time. 

And the same can be true of the reverse situation.  Say we just burned them with a pass, so now they get smart and throw in a nickel  package.  Say they even add an extra safety instead of an extra CB for the more favorable size matchup on the TE.  Well now you have  your TEs down the field blocking DBs.  While they may have been able to cover the TE in a passing situation, now you have created a blocking mismatch to exploit in your run game.

Really, even though it looks a lot more vanilla, it has a lot in common with the Wildcat.  It is a clever way to create mismatches with the Defense and keep them guessing.  It is also an unconventional way to take advantage of the resources we have on hand, get our most talented players on the field at the same time, and help get the ball into their hands.  The biggest difference between the two may be that there are fewer obvious options for the defense to shut the triple TE set down.

The biggest limitation to this offense so far, is simply the fact that you have to have three tight ends who are both a threat to run and pass for the defense to be forced to respect it.  Right now Haynos is probably not far along enough to be considered in this category.  But if he continues to develop, and can consistently look as good as when he caught his single TD this season, then look out.  The other limitation is that as I stated above, the O-line has got to be able to hold its own or the pass option becomes unfeasable, and once again the D will not respect the passing aspect. So that means a triple TE set now=run.  And when the offense is predictable, the defense will be able to shut down the run with basically the same strategy as they used to quiet the Wildcat (basically, send everybody in on a rush and ignore any receivers going down field). 

If these two items can 'click' for us however (and that could be a big if), then keep your eyes out for this formation again next season.  Henning has shown that he has both the cunning, and more importantly, the daring to employ innovative schemes like the triple TE set. 

P.S. - Am I losing my mind, or did I see the Dolphins line up in a pseudo- flexbone formation (I say pseudo because I didn't notice a FB)?    Not sure if there were TEs at the line, but I swear I saw Ronnie and Ricky line up as slotbacks or wing backs, and Chad handed the ball off to Ricky on a Counter- veer type play.  Anyone else see that as well?