Offensive Film Grades From Miami Dolphins' 20-13 Preseason Win Over Atlanta Falcons
Who played their best ball for the Dolphins on offense on Friday night as Miami opened their 2024 preseason schedule? Here's how we graded the film.
The Miami Dolphins wrapped up their first preseason contest of the season with a 20-13 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Friday night. The Dolphins sputtered offensively for much of the night without nearly two dozen prominent players on the offensive side of the football—but that doesn’t mean there weren’t bright spots. The good news for Miami is that their infusion of youth made a slew of plays en route to 20 points and a win.
Who performed the best?
I’ve graded the All-22 coaches’ film and have the results. But first—how exactly does one grade the tape?
Methodology
I am implementing a portion of the grading process used by Pro Football Focus this year as a means of quantifying player performance.
“The PFF grading system evaluates every player on every play during a football game…did the quarterback make a great throw, but it was dropped? The quarterback contributed to positive production and will receive a positive grade for that effort, even though the receiver let him down, earning a negative grade along the way.
Each player is given a grade of -2 to +2 in 0.5 increments on a given play with 0 generally being the average or “expected” grade. There are a few exceptions as each position group has different rules, but those are the basics. The zero grade is important as most plays feature many players doing their job at a reasonable, or expected, level, so not every player on every play needs to earn a positive or a negative.”
— Pro Football Focus on their grading methodology
This is where my implementation of the PFF approach ends, however. Pro Football Focus takes this scoring and converts it into a number on a 0-100 scale while also factoring in the weighted value of certain types of reps for certain positions. That isn’t what I intend to produce. I’m much less interested in an “adjusted” consumable score for a player than a true reflection of what a player’s net good and bad contributions are relative to the reps they are assigned throughout the course of a game.
I intend to grade each game for the Dolphins this season with this approach—which will allow us to see the full scope of spectacular and game-changing plays from players, ascertain who are models of consistency, and help further amplify poor player performances by the cumulative sum and per-play average in 2024.
Offensive Grades Vs. Atlanta
No Miami Dolphins talent left a bigger mark on this football game on offense than 4th-round rookie RB Jaylen Wright. Wright’s performance was highlighted by a tremendous touchdown run in the low red zone and a spectacular individual effort on a botched perimeter screen to double back across the field, break several angles of pursuit, and pick up an explosive play for a first down.
Wright’s explosive plays overlapped between Miami’s “starting offensive line” combination of Patrick Paul - Sean Harlow (Kion Smith) - Jack Driscoll (Andrew Meyer) - Lester Cotton (Driscoll) - Ryan Hayes and the third unit. Finding a way to make an impact between groups is impressive—especially considering Jeff Wilson Jr. commandeered the first few possessions of the football game.
Speaking of impressive, IOL Jack Driscoll gave the Dolphins something to think about this weekend. With utility offensive lineman Liam Eichenberg sitting, Driscoll stepped in at center after being asked to play a little center, guard, and right tackle during the first few weeks of camp. He didn’t disappoint.
Driscoll, like Eichenberg, is lean-bodied. He doesn’t have the heaviest anchor, nor does he have the best power. But he’s fluid and balanced.
This recovery rep in pass protection leapt off the screen, for example. Driscoll short-sets Falcons 2024 2nd-round pick Ruke Orhorhoro and does well to frame this pass rush with the intent of protecting his inside leverage. Center Andrew Meyer steps away on this protection, so Driscoll’s inside gap is paramount to protect based on his set and his hand strike. Driscoll does both and then absorbs the explosive power of Orhorhoro. Driscoll’s center of gravity is jarred but maintained and thanks to his hand fit, he’s able to maintain his balance and stay attached before collecting his feet.
We’ve seen plenty of these reps from Eichenberg over the years, where footing is lost, and #74 ends the rep on the ground. Seeing Driscoll ride out the storm was impressive. Between these reps in protection and the intent and pop he brought coming off the ball, I think Miami may be wise to get Driscoll some RG snaps this week in practice with the 1s against Washington.
No other player on offense made more “plus” contribution plays than rookie LT Patrick Paul. But because Paul played nearly the full game, his per-play average sits below some other contributors offensively on a per-snap basis. Paul wasn’t perfect. He had some lapses in technique both in the run game and pass protection. That’s to be expected. But seeing him collect so many “win” reps against Atlanta—particularly against Lorenzo Carter & Arnold Ebiketie—puts Paul ahead of his perceived developmental curve.
One other surprising development along the offensive line? OG Lester Cotton looked like a capable NFL guard in his smattering of reps, too. I’ve been pretty vocal in my disdain for Cotton’s play last season. He was realistically Miami’s 9th best OL on the depth chart and still collected the 6th most offensive snaps of any player on the team in 2023. Did those reps spur some development? Cotton has largely been a 2nd-string guard in camp, and it does feel like he’s firmly behind Robert Jones. But if we get a bigger sample size for Cotton next week, I’ll be watching closely with intrigue.
I never thought I’d say that out loud.
It wasn’t all good for the Dolphins, however. The performance of both backup quarterback contenders Skylar Thompson & Mike White has been put under the microscope by every talking head covering the team this weekend. Rightfully so. They were bad. For Thompson, it was the basic plays he didn’t make that lingered the most. Thompson’s interception was a poor decision, but I don’t think Malik Washington helped him with the route, which was rounded at the top and opened the door for CB Kevin King to undercut it.
Thompson missed a connection with WR Braylon Sanders in a mesh concept on 3rd & 2 in the low red zone. The Dolphins’ protection appeared to be wrong, with Miami getting caught blocking 4 with 3 defenders and a free runner coming up the middle. Thompson did well to get off his spot but missed Sanders high & behind while running to his left.
Thompson would then go on to slip on a 4th down scramble and turn the ball over on downs inside the 5 after two eligibles fell down on the slick grass at Hard Rock Stadium. It was a microcosm of the night for Thompson—some things went wrong around him, but he ultimately missed his own opportunities as well.
For White, he looked more like a contrast of skills to what the offense calls for versus missing opportunities. Jaylen Wright’s heroic save of a botched perimeter screen came because White awkwardly shot-put a catch-and-shoot throw to the perimeter—so inaccurately that the ball actually went backward and was counted as a rush and not a reception.
He had his own turnover-worthy throw on a dig route into the teeth of a safety squatting on the hash and ultimately coughed up a game-sealing 3rd down conversion by starting his slide too early and being marked short of a first down late in the 4th quarter. I will say this for Mike White—the ultimate review of the game film showed receivers Willie Snead IV, Je’Quan Burton, and Kyric McGowan doing him no favors, either. Each dropped a catchable target in the second half.
Both quarterbacks had their lives made more difficult by OT Ryan Hayes, who played more snaps on Friday night (65) than any other player offensively. His performance at right tackle was abysmal. Between poor framing and strike timing and a tendency to kill his feet when he threw hands in protection, countless defenders zipped through Hayes’ strike zone without so much as breaking stride.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the night for me was TE Jody Fortson. Fortson came to Miami by way of Kansas City and with something of a reputation as a hidden gem. You could see why on the film:
But it has not been a kind summer for Fortson thus far. He’s struggled with some drops at Dolphins practices and feels comfortably behind the three tight ends who did not dress on Friday for Miami—Jonnu Smith, Julian Hill & Durham Smythe.
This is supposed to be the time for Fortson to gain some ground. I don’t think he did. He was unconfident as a blocker and got stuffed up at the point of attack on a number of occasions that complicated the track of running backs. That’s not necessarily his strength, but seeing him struggle with split-flow responsibilities to cut down edge defenders and simply “get in the way” was disheartening, too. I don’t think there’s a spot on this 53-man roster for a tight end who can’t block at all. And Fortson hasn’t shown enough in that phase to warrant being on the field for targets. Friday night was a continuation of that, in my opinion.