Special Teams Play Is The Miami Dolphins Biggest Weakness

Despite all of the talk about the Miami Dolphins needing to remove the wildcat from their offense, there is a bigger problem they have to deal with.

Poor special teams.

Special teams has been overlooked for the Dolphins this week because of the wildcat's recent ineffectiveness, and while the wildcat still is a problem it has not hurt Miami nearly as much as poor special teams has.

At Least Dan Carpenter Makes Most Of These

A big reason Miami lost to the New York Jets was our special teams play. From poor kickoff and punt coverage to kicking the ball out of bounds on kickoffs to having a punt blocked deep in their own territory, the Dolphins might as well have just handed the Jets the win.

There is nothing like always having to play defense on a short field and always having to play offense on a long one. You can have a great defense, but that defense can only do so much when they have a short field to work with.

This hasn't been a recent thing, either. It was a problem last year, too. Ted Ginn Jr.'s two kick return TDs against the Jets may have masked the special teams poor performance during the rest of the year, but it was still bad.

It seemed to me like our return game would have improved with the addition of Clifton Smith at the beginning of this season, but that was short-lived as the Dolphins released him after Week 2.

Miami's Special Teams Coordinator John Bonamego has not been impressive thus far, and I can't help but wonder how long he will be with the team. I hope he will be able to pick up the special teams for his sake as well as the teams, but I am not so sure how long he will last.

But, I don't care how they do it. I just want the Miami Dolphins to fix their special teams because I hate seeing them do well on offense and defense only to lose it on special teams.

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Miami Dolphins Release Kick Returner Clifton Smith Way Too Soon

Former Pro Bowl returner Clifton Smith had been with the Miami Dolphins for less than a month before they released him this week.

Smith was brought in as a kick return specialist to help try and revamp the Dolphins normally poor return game. He was the perfect candidate for the Dolphins return spot, and it made sense when Miami picked him up.

What doesn't make sense , though, is the Miami Dolphins decision to release him. He didn't do much in the way of returning for two games, so they decided to release him? It seems a bit premature to me to release Smith after such a short period of time.

It isn't like he has been consistently bad for weeks and weeks. All he had was two bad games and they pulled the plug on him.

I wish they would have given him more time. It can take a little while to gel with your special teams unit, and I am pretty sure two games is not enough time.

Smith was a great returner who averaged 29.1 return yards on kickoffs last season with the Buccaneers. Why not take a chance and keep a guy like that around? If 30 return yards is just the average then he had a lot of returns that were longer than that. Imagine having that kind of return guy in.

He could have consistently shortened the Dolphins drives on offense significantly, and with a slow moving offense like we have right now he is the perfect guy to return in Miami.

Also, it wasn't he was taking up a lot of money from the team either. His contract (according to rotoworld.com) is $1.615 million for two years. To most people that is a lot of money, but for a player as talented at returning as Smith is it is nothing.

I would argue that he is worth twice that much. Big time kick returners are hard to come by, so you need to be sure to keep them if at all possible.

Let me know what you think about releasing Smith. Do you agree or disagree with the move?

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Kick Returner Clifton Smith Has Joined The Miami Dolphins, And He Should Be A Big Help

Meet Our 10 Extra Yards Man

The Miami Dolphins have signed Clifton Smith, who is a kick return specialist.

His official position may be running back, but that is not at all why he is on the roster. He was brought in to do one thing, and that is returning kicks.

I am glad to see that we brought him in. Kick returning was not a strong point for the Dolphins, but bringing him in will make it a strong point.

Clifton averaged 29.1 yards per kick return, and he is much better than Ted Ginn Jr. was. Ginn's average was 24.9, and that was with 100 and 101 yard TD returns against the New York Jets. If you take away those two long returns, then Ginn's average becomes 21.05 yards per return.

That is almost a 10 yard difference on every return. That is a huge number, and it would be a lot nicer to be able to start 10 yards closer to the end zone on every possession.

Last year the Dolphins were always forced to have long drives, and when you combined the field position they had with their playing style, it was no wonder they had a huge time of possession every game. And, they didn't even benefit from that time of possession, either.

So, why tire our offense when we can shorten the drive and still get results?

Adding Clifton Smith was a pretty big move for Miami. While it may not seem like a very significant move, trust me it is. Shorter drives equal more points, and more points equal more wins.

Ted Ginn may have helped us win one game, but Smith will help us win every game.

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