I will caveat this by saying that I do think our offensive line has improved from last year, but not to the degree that people think. However, I see a lot of posts saying that we need to “apologize” to Liam Eichenberg or Austin Jackson. In AJ’s case, there has been some marginal improvements but I just don’t see it with Eich.

Tua had the 2nd fastest Time To Throw this week and he has the fastest TTT over the season so far. The Time To Throw over the past few weeks has progressively gotten lower. I don’t think we can draw a substantial amount of conclusions from AJ or Eich’s performances because McDaniel schemes poor blocking mostly out of the equation with the quick passing. The magic of our offense is that despite the incredibly quick passes we are throwing, the low amount of receivers in routes and the high amount of blockers we employ, we are consistently near the top of Completed and Intended Air Yards.

I’ve been watching Curtis on the channel Ace Per Head for a few years now and I feel like he does the best analysis of the Dolphins offensive performance. His basic thesis is that a lot of the flaws in our offensive line this year are covered by: A) How quick we get the ball out and B) the help that our poorer blockers get when Terron, Connor and Hunt are all in. Curtis has tracked how much blockers we use per pass all season and the number has increased the more we are injured, which in turn decreases the amount of receivers in routes. All of that is a recipe for having a mediocre to bad offense, but as Curtis has pointed out: our offense is defying convention because the teams that are closest to us in Time To Throw are nowhere near us in Completed Air Yards and yet the combo of Tua’s elite release and anticipation, Tyreek and Waddle’s speed and leverage, and McDaniel’s scheming have allowed our offense to be elite.

How I see it, the big jump in our offense from 2021 to 2022 was going from 5 Completed Air Yards per play to 8 due to McDaniel’s new scheme. And the apparent jump in our offensive line performance this year is mostly due to adjustments to that scheme that are cutting down the Time To Throw from 2.3 to 2.6 seconds. Those .3 seconds make a huge difference in the NFL and save Tua from taking a beating. I think if Terron, Connor, and Hunt can all be in a the same time and healthy, this offense can take another step, but while that is not so this offense will continue to be limited by the offensive line.