Official Game Thread - Preseason Week 1 - Dolphins @ Commanders

Found another clip of Styles from the game


I wouldn’t have even uploaded those clips haha. But I’m not worried. We got the home run pick for once and he’s gonna be DROY. Should’ve just sat him if you were just going to have him go half speed like that. I want him getting some meaningful reps. But then again they were playing arguably the worst NFL team going into this season.

Chris 44 said:

Was glad to see that the new coordinates appeared comfortable. Didn't notice any delays, confusion etc between plays. Going to be growing pains from both but I get the sense neither will force "my way or the highway" like the guys they replaced. They are hungry to succeed and will put in the extra work.

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I noticed numerous offensive plays coming down to the wire including several that could’ve easily been delaying game calls. I think they have some work to do on getting the play called and run in a timely fashion.

Boone said:

I noticed numerous offensive plays coming down to the wire including several that could’ve easily been delaying game calls. I think they have some work to do on getting the play called and run in a timely fashion.

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This is going to drive me absolutely bananas. One of the things that I really liked about Kliff's system is that they moved quickly.

I am so tired of ploddy offenses. Get up and go God Damn it.

Voice_of_Reason said:

This is going to drive me absolutely bananas. One of the things that I really liked about Kliff's system is that they moved quickly.

I am so tired of ploddy offenses. Get up and go God Damn it.

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“Work fast and throw strikes!”

Voice_of_Reason said:

This is going to drive me absolutely bananas. One of the things that I really liked about Kliff's system is that they moved quickly.

I am so tired of ploddy offenses. Get up and go God Damn it.

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They didn’t really though. They didn’t huddle, but they also didn’t hurry-up (except when situationally appropriate) and one of my major criticisms was that despite the no-huddle, they were often barely snapping the ball as the play clock expired, letting the defense know when to jump and negating the advantage you might get from not huddling. This was often due to too many substitutions (that the D was then allowed to match as slowly as possible, which refs at times did warn them about). But I remember it very clearly because it was one of my big issues with Kliff’s offense and I posted about it a lot when myself and other “Fire Kliff” types were a relative minority before it actually happened.

Conn said:

They didn’t really though. They didn’t huddle, but they also didn’t hurry-up (except when situationally appropriate) and one of my major criticisms was that despite the no-huddle, they were often barely snapping the ball as the play clock expired, letting the defense know when to jump and negating the advantage you might get from not huddling. This was often due to too many substitutions (that the D was then allowed to match as slowly as possible, which refs at times did warn them about). But I remember it very clearly because it was one of my big issues with Kliff’s offense and I posted about it a lot when myself and other “Fire Kliff” types were a relative minority before it actually happened.

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It was a mixed bag, I’ll grant you. And it was much better in 2024 than 2025.

I think the were 16th in average time between snaps. But there were plenty of times when they would use tempo as a weapon.

There were others when they go to the line, substituted, and then lollygagged around and took forever.

I’m not asking for peak Chip Kelly style fast paced.

But Kliff’s offenses weren’t slow and plodding.

Norv Jr.’s were, Jay’s were. Kyle’s were not.

I don’t need hurry up all the time. But I would lien to see tempo.

Conn said:

They didn’t really though. They didn’t huddle, but they also didn’t hurry-up (except when situationally appropriate) and one of my major criticisms was that despite the no-huddle, they were often barely snapping the ball as the play clock expired, letting the defense know when to jump and negating the advantage you might get from not huddling. This was often due to too many substitutions (that the D was then allowed to match as slowly as possible, which refs at times did warn them about). But I remember it very clearly because it was one of my big issues with Kliff’s offense and I posted about it a lot when myself and other “Fire Kliff” types were a relative minority before it actually happened

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In the immortal words of Roseanne Roseannadanna - “Well it just goes to show you, it’s always something. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

Goskins10 said:

So, first game with a new offense, the 3rd and 4th string QB, many substitutions due to trying to get looks at rookies to see who might make the team and might not (most will not), and you are concerned they are not getting plays in fast enough. These games are to work out kinks and to play around with matchups. They are looking situationally and at particular guys to see if they can help the team either on the roster or on the practice squad or not at all. And yes, with a new OC and DC work out getting plays called and who can do what.

I hate to tell you but it's very likely this will still be a problem 3 to 5 games into the season. And that is normal. You can't expect a well-oiled veteran team performance the first preseason game with as many guys who will not play regular season football as there are that will not to mention completely new O and D systems.

I have no idea if this team will be 5-12 or 12-5, likely somewhere in between. But I do think we need to give them more time than the first preseason game to start lodging philosophical and process complaints at them. Let's at least let them have a few regular season games. Maybe just a modicum of patience.

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I think you misread him; he was referring to how the timing worked under KK. He wasn’t talking about the preseason timing at all.

SkinsNumberOne said:

I think you misread him; he was referring to how the timing worked under KK. He wasn’t talking about the preseason timing at all.

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If so, that's on me and I will apologize. But I read it again and it feels like it was for this game and was a complaint from before. I have been wrong before and will be again. So let's see.

Goskins10 said:

So, first game with a new offense, the 3rd and 4th string QB, many substitutions due to trying to get looks at rookies to see who might make the team and might not (most will not), and you are concerned they are not getting plays in fast enough. These games are to work out kinks and to play around with matchups. They are looking situationally and at particular guys to see if they can help the team either on the roster or on the practice squad or not at all. And yes, with a new OC and DC work out getting plays called and who can do what.

I hate to tell you but it's very likely this will still be a problem 3 to 5 games into the season. And that is normal. You can't expect a well-oiled veteran team performance the first preseason game with as many guys who will not play regular season football as there are that will not to mention completely new O and D systems.

I have no idea if this team will be 5-12 or 12-5, likely somewhere in between. But I do think we need to give them more time than the first preseason game to start lodging philosophical and process complaints at them. Let's at least let them have a few regular season games. Maybe just a modicum of patience.

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No, you misread. I was criticizing Kliff’s offense in response to VoR’s post asserting that at least that offense “moved quickly”. Which is why I started with “they didn’t really though”, etc.

Conn said:

No, you misread. I was criticizing Kliff’s offense in response to VoR’s post about it.

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Then please accept my apology. If it makes any difference, I misread it several times... 🤣

Voice_of_Reason said:

This is going to drive me absolutely bananas. One of the things that I really liked about Kliff's system is that they moved quickly.

I am so tired of ploddy offenses. Get up and go God Damn it.

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I think it's a function of all of the turnover. Coordinator and assistant turnover, new playbooks, and I think both Blough and Jones tend towards more complex, verbiage heavy systems, so there's a high learning curve. Any time you have new coordinators, you are probably going to see time management issues until they get fully comfortable making decisive calls on plays and coverage. It's just something I noticed and hopefully that's all it is and the processes speed up with more time and familiarity.

Listening to the Take Command podcast, one of the recurring refrains was that "Oh, I didn't notice that guy because he's down on the depth chart and just isn't getting many reps." They said that about both Gulbin and Henry. I was surprised about Gulbin given the Alegretti injury, but kind of annoyed by the observation in general. I mean I get it. There are only so many reps and you are trying to get the starters and primary backups ready for the season, but offseason practices should be about development, too. Makes me go back to a thought I had a while ago. Should teams invest in a Developmental or Practice Squad coach (or maybe a few) whose job is really to work with the bottom of the roster and polish up those diamonds in the ruff.

burgold said:

Listening to the Take Command podcast, one of the recurring refrains was that "Oh, I didn't notice that guy because he's down on the depth chart and just isn't getting many reps." They said that about both Gulbin and Henry. I was surprised about Gulbin given the Alegretti injury, but kind of annoyed by the observation in general. I mean I get it. There are only so many reps and you are trying to get the starters and primary backups ready for the season, but offseason practices should be about development, too.

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Grant and Logan not noticing a depth guy isn’t the same as coaches and personnel staff in the building not noticing a guy. They make sure everyone gets the reps they can and then obsessively watch the tape and make adjustments each day. I wouldn’t assume that because podcast hosts (even knowledge ex-players like Logan Paulsen) and media members aren’t noticing something, the staff isn’t. Most media doesn’t even have access to the practice film the coaches evaluate, they just see what they can see from the sideline and then speculate.

burgold said:

Makes me go back to a thought I had a while ago. Should teams invest in a Developmental or Practice Squad coach (or maybe a few) whose job is really to work with the bottom of the roster and polish up those diamonds in the ruff.

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There are always better ways to be doing things, but NFL teams have way more assistant coaches on staff than they did 15 years ago and a big reason for that is to focus on non-starter player development (including practice squad). Every single positional room has the position coach, asst position coach, and usage of quality control coaches and sometimes specific coaching interns (who are usually ex-players). Most teams even break up larger position groups now into multiple coaches and supporting staff (instead of DB coach, many teams now have a Safeties coach and a CB coach. Some teams have ILB and OLB coaches, etc.)

Nobody is more incentivized to develop depth and cheap lottery ticket players than the franchises, and while I’m sure not every team is doing everything they could, including ours, it’s also probably not as simple as manpower and having enough coaches.

I think it’s a little silly to assume you’ve just thought up the magic formula of adding a coach specifically to coach developmental PS players. We’re always (understandably) evaluating from the outside, and sometimes criticizing, but there also has to be some level of assumed competence across a league of 32 franchises trying to make as much money as possible and create as many star players as possible. They have coaches spending a lot of individual time with developmental players, whenever a guy breaks out he usually has some assistant or other to thank for spending a lot of time with him, even if a lot of the obsessive details work has to be done on their own to improve: But there’s also likely a point where more manpower brings diminishing returns, most of these depth players really don’t have what it takes to break through as more than they are, aside from a natural growth curve as they gain experience if they can stick long enough.

That’s just my take. NFL teams should always be trying to find competitive edges in the margins, but somehow I think they’ve probably thought of “what if we coached these depth players more??”

I’m not really worried about our second and third stringers barely getting the play off on time in the first preseason game with a new offense/OC. In fact, I’m not really gleaning anything from that worthless game that did not include any of our starters
As for Kingsbury, though, I agree it was annoying. Even more annoying was his late substitutions near the goal line. Not just that he did it, but kept making the same mistake over and over again. KK completely lived up to his reputation here. Comes out on fire, but things get stale when defenses figure out what he’s doing, and he fails to ever adjust. This is one of the main reasons why I was in the good riddance camp when it came to letting him go.

Voice_of_Reason said:

That has to be one of the absolute worst throws I have ever seen in watching football at any level: peewee, HS, College, NFL Europe, NFL, flag, whatever.

1. It's hard to tell if he was throwing to Diyami or McCaffery. ** This by itself is an indicator of how bad a throw this is. If you can't immediately tell where the ball was going, that's bad.
2. If he was throwing to Diyami, he's open. However, you have to drive it in to him between defenders. There's no way Hartman can make that throw. I'm pretty sure Daniels or Mariota could.
3. Also, if he was throwing to Diyami, he missed the throw by 8 yards. That's like missing a barn door from 15 feet away with a sniper rifle in the NFL. That's a BAD miss.
4. But throwing to Diyami is the wrong read, because McCaffery is wide open, lead him in front, and he probably walks in. At the very least, it's a super easy catch. So, if he was throwing to Diyami, bad throw AND bad read.
4. If he was throwing to McCaffery, he missed the throw by 15 yards. Which is kindof like failing to throw a rock into the Atlantic Ocean while standing in the Ocean in Ocean City Maryland. Like, how the hell do you do that?

Also, he had all the time in the world.

My God Man. This throw by itself might just be a "gots to go" situation.

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Galdi said it looked like Hartman was aiming at Diyami. Which I do think is more likely.

In order to catch the ball, Diyami would have to have been standing on Shaq's shoulders and holding a fishing net over his head. That's how far over his head that ball was.

And given the fact he had like 8 seconds, how he didn't see the WIDE OPEN guy not 10 yards away running towards the endzone is beyond me.

HTTR said:

I’m not really worried about our second and third stringers barely getting the play off on time in the first preseason game with a new offense/OC. In fact, I’m not really gleaning anything from that worthless game that did not include any of our starters
As for Kingsbury, though, I agree it was annoying. Even more annoying was his late substitutions near the goal line. Not just that he did it, but kept making the same mistake over and over again. KK completely lived up to his reputation here. Comes out on fire, but things get stale when defenses figure out what he’s doing, and he fails to ever adjust. This is one of the main reasons why I was in the good riddance camp when it came to letting him go.

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It was crazy how many times we had to call time out during in our "hurry up" to avoid delay of game once teams realized they could slow walk their substitutions. I blame this partly on the refs, but it drove me crazy.

burgold said:

It was crazy how many times we had to call time out during in our "hurry up" to avoid delay of game once teams realized they could slow walk their substitutions. I blame this partly on the refs, but it drove me crazy.

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Yeah, was terrible to watch and absolutely momentum-killing over and over.

But it’s why I posted a lot to people complaining in those gameday threads, we ran a no-huddle, not a hurry-up. It’s like how all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares…people recklessly use that term interchangeably and Kliff really did his best to teach this fanbase the difference

burgold said:

It was crazy how many times we had to call time out during in our "hurry up" to avoid delay of game once teams realized they could slow walk their substitutions. I blame this partly on the refs, but it drove me crazy.

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It was partly the reps, but it was a lot of late substitutions.

My memory might be faulty, but I know it happened from time to time in 2024, but it seemed like it happened A LOT in 2025. Maybe it was becuase they were trying to go no-huddle but also change into different personnel groups more because 2/3 of the team was injured.