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Bill Lazor Out as Offensive Coordinator, QB Coach Zac Taylor Takes Over Play-Calling

Play-calling has been a maddening issue for the Dolphins all season, and it appears to annoy Dan Campbell as much as it does the fans. 

After watching an anemic offense again fail to get anything done when it mattered, Campbell made the decision to fire offensive coordinator Bill Lazor on Monday, per Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. 

The reason for the firing was Campbell’s frustration with the Dolphins offense, including this point of contention tweeted by the Miami Herald‘s Adam Beasley. Campbell wanted to run the ball more, but Lazor did not and would not. 

Taking over for Lazor is the quarterbacks coach, Zac Taylor. Taylor has worked with Tannehill since his days at Texas AM, and in addition to running the ball more, Beasley reported Taylor will give Tannehill more latitude to make play-calling suggestions and audible at the line of scrimmage.

At best, it’s a cover-your-butt move by Campbell to deflect some blame off of him for the team’s offensive woes. At worst, it’s a sign of further dysfunction in Davie.

Will it make much of a difference? Not one bit. The Dolphins are out of it barring a miracle 5-0 run to end the season while the teams ahead of them in the AFC standings choke away their spots.

Dolphins Sign C Jacques McClendon in Response to Mike Pouncey Injury

The Dolphins might be without Mike Pouncey on Sunday, and Jamil Douglas’ performance at center against the Jets was uninspiring. 

This led to the Dolphins bringing back Jacques McClendon, per Andrew Abramson of the Palm Beach Post, as the Dolphins signed the veteran center on Tuesday. 

To make room for McClendon, Miami released linebacker James-Michael Johnson. 

The move makes sense, as Douglas had quite a few low snaps on Sunday, including three that got away from him, and Pro Football Focus graded him out at minus-6.5. It was his first game as a center; he had played either tackle or guard in college and in his short NFL career. 

McClendon has bounced on and off the Dolphins roster all season, so it’s expected that he knows Miami’s offense well.

DeVante Parker Declares Himself Starter for Sunday

Miami Dolphins first-round pick DeVante Parker saw a good amount of snaps against the Jets last Sunday, and he capitalized with four catches for 80 yards and a long touchdown reception that saw him make a few Jets defensive backs miss him.

Along with the injury to Rishard Matthews, this is why Parker is declaring himself a starter against Baltimore, per Omar Kelly of the Sun Sentinel. 

Parker has the necessary bravado to take the job on, saying, “I think I just need to show people what I can do, because I haven’t been getting as many reps as I wanted. But now I have a chance to show people what I can do.”

On the other hand, Campbell isn’t so quick to commit to Parker. Along with the implication that Parker will compete with Greg Jennings and Kenny Stills for the starting receiver slot alongside Jarvis Landry, Campbell had the following criticism for Parker:

I thought he was shaky early in the game, [and] in the middle of the game [Sunday]. There were some plays that you would like his routes to be much more sharp than they were. He needs to reach out for the ball and use his size. But as the game went on he got more comfortable and he adjusted pretty well to the speed of the game.

The best way to get Parker more comfortable is by giving him more reps. With the season the way it is, and with Baltimore’s shaky pass defense (ranked 24th in the NFL, allowing 258.6 passing yards per game with an average of 7.4 yards per catch), why not start him over Jennings while using Stills as the third receiver? 

If anything, it makes more sense to do that than to continue to limit Parker’s snaps. The Dolphins have a gifted receiver with the potential to be a true No. 1 threat, but he has to develop and can only do so with more time on the field.

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