The Miami Dolphins’ offensive effort in Week 1 of the NFL season didn’t exactly go as planned. Despite the presence of veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm, the Dolphins stumbled to less than 300 yards of total offense, coughed up three turnovers and only managed to scratch out 11 points on the day. It was tough sledding, to say the least.
But Week 2 affords the Dolphins with a chance to self-evaluate their performance and make the necessary adjustments to get their offense off the ground and into high gear. The team will face off against the Buffalo Bills — one of the favorites in the AFC East this year. Getting offensive traction may be easier said than done, but fortunately for Miami there is one easy way that this team can help the offense without doing much in the way of changing things up.
Use more motion at the snap. Seth Walder of ESPN has released the Week 1 motion tendencies of all 32 NFL offenses and, well, let’s just say it doesn’t represent the Dolphins very well.
How often did each team use motion in Week 1? First column is motion at the snap, second column is all pre-snap motion.
Shoutout to our video trackers who make this stat possible. pic.twitter.com/mDf6aPEgyI
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) September 16, 2020
Miami’s pre-snap motion checked in at 22nd in the NFL but their motion at the snap was good for 29th in the league, ahead of the Giants, Falcons and Vikings. Meanwhile, the New England Patriots, Miami’s Week 1 opponent, finished 2nd highest in the NFL with motion at the snap. We all saw what New England’s movement at the snap did to the eyes of Dolphins defenders — why wouldn’t the team look to implement more ‘high stress’ motion to prompt a lack of discipline from opposing defenders?
Getting skill players into motion at the snap of the ball also provides them with momentum to accelerate into their route stems and could perhaps help the Dolphins get some of that scarce separation against coverage that the team found so difficult to find in Week 1.
This feels fairly cut and dry. If the Dolphins want a better offensive performance in Week 2, one easy fix would be to provide more motion at the snap.
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