Full Miami Dolphins Report Card Heading into Week 5 Bye
The Miami Dolphins are heading into the bye week at 2-2, which prior to the season looked like a reasonable goal to aspire to in the first quarter of the season.
Despite that, Miami faced plenty of turbulence in the first four weeks, from a possible quarterback controversy to suspensions and injuries that hampered their team. With issues like that, you'd think the Dolphins would be lucky to sniff 2-2. However there's still the feeling among fans and the team that their record should be better right now.
Today, we're going to grade the Dolphins after their first four games.
The grades will be based off of the post-game grades I post after every Dolphins game (an archive of which is available on the final page of the slideshow), however it won't be an exact average, as other factors (such as All-22 footage watched after each game) will be used in the grade.
There are reasons for optimism, as the Dolphins will have a new look to them when they come back a week from this Sunday. Mike Pouncey should be back from a hip injury that cost him the entire preseason and first four games, and Reshad Jones should fix some of the problems of the secondary (which aren't as bad as you think).
Koa Misi will be back to fix the linebackers, while Shelley Smith will rejoin Pouncey along the offensive line.
We're also not too far away from Knowshon Moreno's return, which should make what has been an excellent Dolphins' running game even better.
That's the potential that this team, a team now tied for first place in the AFC East, can look forward to; and I didn't even mention Dion Jordan, who also will be back within the next month.
But I'm not grading on potential, I'm grading based off of how they have performed in their first four games of the season, an uneven stretch where they have either dominated, or gotten dominated.
Here's a look at their grades to start the season.
Quarterback
1 of 10
The most inconsistent player on this inconsistent team has been Ryan Tannehill.
When you look at the raw numbers, Tannehill doesn't look too bad. He's completed 60 percent of his passes for 902 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions for a quarterback rating of 81.2.
However, those statistics factor in his excellent day in London against Oakland. Prior to that game, Tannehill had been the subject of controversy as his head coach Joe Philbin was noncommittal about him starting due to his first three performances, which this table will highlight.
| Opponent | Completion Percentage | Yards | Touchdowns | Interceptions | Passer Rating |
| New England | 56.25 | 178 | 2 | 1 | 79.9 |
| Buffalo | 63 | 241 | 1 | 1 | 73.6 |
| Kansas City | 48.3 | 205 | 1 | 0 | 70.4 |
| Total | 56.4 | 624 | 4 | 2 | 74.1 |
Those numbers aren't inspiring, and some teams bench for less.
I mentioned earlier how even evaluating Tannehill has become inconsistent, and that's due to Pro Football Focus constantly ranking Tannehill highly despite his pedestrian performance in his first three games. The article explains why, which is the same thing your eyes have seen at times.
His wide receivers have dropped plenty of passes.
I'm not going to use that as an all-encompassing excuse. There's another reason why his performance in his first three games hasn't been as good as it should be: coaching.
It took Tannehill's best game for many to see that in his first three games, he's not handled the way he should be. Tannehill isn't a great quarterback, but he can be a winning quarterback with the right game plan and plenty of balance.
In four games, Tannehill's average from me has been a C+, which I was tempted to give him at first, but then I thought back to last week and how he handled the controversy, both on and off the field.
Quarterbacks should be leaders, and Tannehill showed plenty of leadership last week.
Grade: B-
Running Backs
2 of 10
The Dolphins are now currently the fourth-best rushing attack in the NFL in terms of yards, and rank fifth in yards per carry.
This, despite the fact that just this week they got into the top 10 in rushing attempts after being in the 20s in that category last week.
This, despite not having their best running back in the last three games.
The Dolphins' run game is an effective weapon, yet at least in the last two weeks, it has had the same two running backs as last year's running game, which was absolutely dreadful.
It's also criminally underutilized, there's no reason why Miami should pass the ball more than they run it.
The only thing I'd change are the fumbles, as Dolphins running backs have fumbled the ball four times, losing two of them.
That's an unacceptable number, but other than that, this has been the strength of their offense, and a good reason why they're at 2-2.
Grade: A-
Wide Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 10
We talked about Ryan Tannehill's inconsistencies, but they go hand in hand with the inconsistent play of Miami's wide receivers.
Thus far, Mike Wallace is the Dolphins' leading receiver, with 20 catches for 246 yards and three touchdowns. He did have a bad first game against New England, even though the stats don't really show it, as he dropped passes in that game, however he recovered quite nicely.
After Wallace, the receivers have been very uneven. Brian Hartline didn't really get going until Week 4 against Oakland, while Brandon Gibson and Jarvis Landry have been wildly inconsistent.
Charles Clay isn't the Charles Clay we saw last year, however he looks like he's hampered by an injury. Hopefully the bye week should fix some of that. He seemed to get going a little bit more against Oakland, but the Dolphins need for Clay to revert to his 2013 ways.
Overall, this unit has me confused. They should be a lot better than they have shown themselves to be, but their own mistakes have held them back.
Grade: C
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Offensive Line
4 of 10
In three of Miami's first four games, they've only had three-fifths of their starting offensive line.
Mike Pouncey missed the first four games, while Shelley Smith has missed the last two due to an injury suffered against the Bills.
Despite that, the Dolphins offensive line has been very good.
Their run-blocking has been superb. We mentioned Miami's run game and how it went from being terrible last season to being the fourth best this year, despite the fact that Knowshon Moreno has only played in one game.
The difference has been up front, where the offensive line is getting more push and opening up more holes. Lamar Miller is averaging 5.7 yards per carry, and Daniel Thomas is averaging 7.1 yards per carry.
Moreno, in his one game (and one series against Buffalo) is averaging 5.5 yards per carry, showing he's not the only back succeeding in the Dolphins' backfield.
Pass protection has been more of an adventure, as Ryan Tannehill is on pace to be sacked 36 times this season (thus far he's been sacked nine times). That's still a lot less than last year though, and in fairness to the offensive line, some of those sacks have come because Tannehill has held onto the ball for too long.
There's no reason to complain about the offensive line, one that is actually going to get better in the next two weeks.
Grade: A-
Defensive Line
5 of 10
It's fun to watch the Dolphins defensive line from week to week.
Even when they seem quiet (like against Oakland), they've made an impact. How much credit did they get for the three interceptions against the Raiders? My answer is not as much as they should have, as their pressure led to it.
It's hard to find a player on this unit who has disappointed when you look at how they play, as opposed to statistics (which make it seem like Olivier Vernon is having a disappointing year—he's actually doing quite fine when you see the tape). Jared Odrick, Randy Starks and Earl Mitchell have done well both in pass-rushing and against the run, while Derrick Shelby has become a dependable player in the rotation.
Like most positions, this one should only get better when Dion Jordan comes back, unless the Dolphins plan on using him at linebacker.
The lone issue: small, speedy running backs. Conventional running backs have a hard time with the Dolphins, but speedy ones tend to get past the line. That's more on the linebackers though.
Grade: A-
Linebackers
6 of 10
There's a lot to say about Miami's linebackers, a lot that can be summed up in one sentence: They haven't been the disaster we figured that they would be.
They still have their problems with speedy scatbacks, but they've been able to handle tight ends better, and the tackling from the unit looks like it has improved from a year ago.
Jelani Jenkins has been a pleasant surprise for the Dolphins and has improved on his game from week-to-week.
Philip Wheeler has been sneakily-effective since coming back from a thumb injury suffered during the preseason. You want him to have more awareness (his lack of awareness cost him an interception against the Raiders), but the tackling is better and he's better positioned than he was last season.
Jason Trusnik is doing what he can, he's a special teams ace who can be in the linebacker rotation, but he's not starting material, as he gets picked on a lot by opposing teams every week and usually, it's an effective strategy.
Getting Koa Misi back will be huge, it might even make this unit go from respectable to decent.
I didn't even expect respectable from this unit, so seeing them jump to decent is a victory in itself.
Grade: C+
Secondary
7 of 10
Looking back, I might have graded the Dolphins secondary a bit too lightly.
They have mostly B's this year, and that's from watching the games themselves and noticing that receivers tend not to have big days against them.
Usually, beating the Dolphins in the air requires dinking and dunking the ball in front of the linebackers and making them make the plays. So far, they've been inconsistent in that, but the safeties have been worse.
The corners have been fine when allowed to press. However, they play a soft-zone, which has led to receivers getting the ball after a short pass with nary a player in sight. Usually this responsibility falls on the safety, but the play of the Dolphins safeties have been very disappointing.
That should change, as Reshad Jones will be back. So far, Louis Delmas has been a bit of a disappointment, as the Dolphins brought him in to be a big-play guy, yet he hasn't produced in that capacity. Jimmy Wilson is showing that he's a nickle, not a safety.
The corners should improve with a better safety in the backfield.
Grade: C+
Special Teams
8 of 10
Time for me to surprise you and stop the presses: Brandon Fields is having a bad year.
Fields so far is only averaging 44.2 yards per punt, with a net of 32.9. Of his 16 punts, only four have landed inside the 20 yard line.
He's also had his punt blocked once.
Oh, and the Dolphins have allowed the most punt return yards in the NFL too, with only two punts being fair-caught.
Returning punts has been an even bigger adventure, as they've only gained 51 yards on nine punt returns, with the longest return going for 16 yards.
Then there's the miscues, like Jarvis Landry returning punts kicked inside his own 20-yard line, or his muffed punt against the Bills.
Kickoff returns against the Dolphins have been a display of missed tackles and good field position for the opposing team.
On the bright side, Caleb Sturgis has only missed one kick.
This unit hasn't been very good, even Brandon Fields is struggling.
Grade: C-
Coaching
9 of 10
The first game saw a fantastic game plan.
The second and third games saw horrible game plans that defied any semblance of logic, with even worse decisions made in crucial situations.
The fourth game showed you how to game-plan in the sense of highlighting your team's strengths, something that under Joe Philbin, the Dolphins have never done a good job of.
I'm not a Joe Philbin supporter, he lost me after last season, and this season he's done nothing to prove me wrong about him. He continues to be stubborn and handle situations as poorly as anyone can handle them.
Look at his non-answers last week, which caused nothing but distractions, rumors and innuendo to fly around the Dolphins. It was wholly unnecessary and downright dumb of him to do what he did.
I credited Ryan Tannehill for how he handled it, and while Philbin did apologize, why put yourself in that position to begin with?
I haven't been too impressed with Kevin Coyle either. He should allow his corners to get more physical with their receivers and stop playing in such soft coverage.
Bill Lazor after four games gets an incomplete from me. In Miami's two wins he was excellent, while in their two losses it felt like watching Mike Sherman.
I can't grade these coaches too high, I'm not too impressed with them right now. It's shocking to me that they got two A's, due to how they won those games.
Grade: C-
Final Grades
10 of 10| Positional Unit | Grade |
| Quarterback | B- |
| Running Backs | A- |
| Wide Receivers and Tight Ends | C |
| Offensive Line | A- |
| Defensive Line | A- |
| Linebackers | C+ |
| Secondary | C+ |
| Special Teams | C- |
| Coaching | C- |
| Cumulative Grade | B- |
For the first quarter of the season, the Dolphins grade out at B-.
There's plenty of work to be done, mostly with the coaching staff, who have to call better games and better develop their players.
Ryan Tannehill could use a lot of work too, but more improvement in play-calling and a shift to using the run game more will help him out by leaps and bounds.
It would also help if his receivers could hold onto the football.
Defensively, getting three players back (Randy Starks, Koa Misi and Reshad Jones) will improve the unit, as will Dion Jordan.
But the onus is on the coaching staff most of all. This team is in contention for the AFC East title, in a very wide open division.
As it stands, the only team that can stop the Dolphins from the playoffs is the Dolphins. Unfortunately, the coaching staff right now has me feeling very uneasy about their chances.
Statistics courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference unless otherwise noted.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
