From Tua to McCarthy: offseason questions for the eliminated playoff teams

Miami Dolphins: Is Tua Tagovailoa the man?

The investigation into what went wrong for the Dolphins this season will be long and painful. They can refer to it the frigid weather in Kansas City and the mountain of injuries at the end of the season as reasons why they fell at the first hurdle in the playoffs, but such a thought would ignore the problems that plagued the team for the rest of the season. They couldn’t beat good teams. They burned draft picks on players who couldn’t contribute down the stretch. A defense that promised to be one of the best in the league was erratic.

Yet these issues are on the fringes of the biggest of them all: Should the team commit to Tua Tagovailoa as their long-term quarterback? We now have too much evidence that Tagovailoa is a great point guard. Put him in a point-and-shoot role with the ideal supporting cast and a great play-caller, and he can flourish. But when something goes wrong — when he misses key plays, when he has to improvise, when his offensive line yields too much pressure — he folds.

Options outside of Tagovailoa are limited. The team could look at trading for Justin Fields. They could target Kirk Cousins ​​in free agency. But Cousins ​​is nursing an Achilles tendon injury, and despite all of Fields’ promise, Tagovailoa is a better fit for Mike McDaniel’s offense.

Miami has a lot of talent and a good coaching staff. But they find themselves in one of the worst places in the NFL: quarterback purgatory. Tagovailoa is too good to move on, but too limited to overcome imperfect circumstances.

Dallas Cowboys: The End for Mike McCarthy?

It was just so quintessentially Cowboys. A season with twelve wins and a disastrous loss in the play-offs. Extended camera footage of a confused, angry Jerry Jones turning to his son in his suite. Stephen, Do you have Belichick’s number?

This was not difficult to predict. As long as McCarthy has been coaching, he has produced excellent offense while overseeing teams that fell apart in the postseason. When things go wrong in major areas, his teams collapse.

Dallas’ defeat shouldn’t fall solely on the shoulders of their head coach. Dak Prescott failed again in the postseason. Dan Quinn seemed to spend more time preparing for interviews with head coaches than studying the Green Bay Packers’ offense. Green Bay’s use of motion and pre-snap motion – the foundation of Matt LaFleur’s offense – left the Cowboys’ defense flummoxed. Packers tight end Luke Musgrave averaged (AVERAGE!) a throw of 9.71 yards per second, a record in the Next Gen Stats era. You read that right: a tight end almost averaged a first down of separation with every click.

Still, being ill-prepared and unable to bounce back from setbacks is a reflection of a head coach. Why did the team look so exhausted on the opening kick-off? Why were CeeDee Lamb and Prescott, the most productive receiver-quarterback duo in the league this season, bickering from the first second to the last?

McCarthy has many excellent qualities. Guiding a team through the postseason is not one of them. It’s time for Dallas to move on and look for a new coach who can push a talented team over the top.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Will they find a quarterback?

A toast, please, to another year of Mike Tomlin supporting his own ‘never had a losing season’ streak while being bounced in the first round of the playoffs.

In the wake of Pittsburgh’s postseason exit, rumors swirled that Tomlin, with one year left on his contract, could retire. When asked about the status of his deal during the post-match press conference, he walked outside before the reporter could finish his question.

Reports now indicate that Tomlin and the Steelers are working on an extension. Bringing Tomlin back is a win; he remains one of the best coaches in the game. But it doesn’t answer Pittsburgh’s thorniest question. They need to find a new quarterback – and Tomlin needs to adopt a new offensive approach.

Few franchises are as isolated as the Steelers. It’s time for Tomlin to bring in an outside voice to pair with a new quarterback. Kenny Pickett doesn’t have the tools to make a difference in a conference that requires A-plus quarterback play. And while the Steelers are unlikely to make a big splash by moving up in the draft, they should be the first port of call for any veteran quarterback looking to pursue a trade this offseason or who is free to move freely.

The Steelers have young talent on their roster. If you’re a major destination for Cousins ​​today (outside of Minnesota), the Steelers should be at the top of the list.

Philadelphia Eagles: How will they fix the defense?

The Eagles’ end of season was an abject failure. No team to date has fallen at such a rate within a season.

In some ways (sorry, Eagles fans), it’s helpful that it happened this way wrong at the end. Had the Eagles limped through a playoff game or picked up a few wins at the end of the regular season, systemic cracks would have been addressed.

Philly needs a total reset. Whether Nick Sirianni should remain as head coach is up for debate, but the rest of the Eagles’ coaching staff should be feeling nervous. Philadelphia failed to build a cohesive offense all season, leaning on their own worst habits without solutions to fundamental problems.

On the defense front, things were somehow even worse. Sean Desai and Matt Patricia, the two DCs charged with running the unit, will take a lot of the blame. But blaming only that couple is a way out. The defense stunk this year for a slew of reasons: poor team building, philosophical shortcomings and an inability to master the details. The team’s pass rush disappeared. The corners fell off a cliff. The middle of the defense – versus the run and pass – was a sieve.

Poor coaching should take its fair share of the blame, but even solid coaching wouldn’t have stopped the likes of James Bradberry and Kevin Byard from whiffing on simple tackles.

But ultimately, the Eagles built an ill-fitting roster for the staff’s defensive design. That concerns both Howie Roseman, the team’s general manager, and the coaching staff. Solving these issues during the season will require high-level talent and top-level coaching. By the end of the season, the Eagles had neither.

Solving the offseason issues will be difficult — and a task made all the more difficult by the concerns that need to be addressed with the offense. It’s going to be a long offseason in Philadelphia.

Cleveland Browns: How do they handle the offense?

Cleveland couldn’t legislate for what happened against the Houston Texans. Their vaunted defense was pulverized by Houston’s young offense. Even when they got close to CJ Stroud, the rookie quarterback put on his cape and cut them up anyway.

A disappointing ending should not overshadow an excellent year. The Browns proved they can be a playoff team and a division contender with above-average quarterback play. If Deshaun Watson can return and deliver a good facsimile of what Joe Flacco delivered.

An injection of new blood will also take place. The Browns announced on Wednesday they had parted ways with Alex Van Pelt, Kevin Stefanski’s longtime collaborator on offense. With Watson returning, the Browns need a new perspective. The partnership between Van Pelt and Watson was largely a battle between two contrasting offensive philosophies. Because of his huge, fully guaranteed contractCleveland is committed to Watson, no matter how awful he has looked this season. Finding a coach who is more aligned with how Watson sees the game will be key to the Browns taking advantage of the potential left in the quarterback.

LA Rams: How aggressive will they be this offseason?

The Rams overperformed this season. They pushed an excellent Lions team to the brink in the playoffs with (by far) the youngest defense in the NFL. Matthew Stafford played as well and consistently as any quarterback in the league this season, answering any concerns about his long-term health. In Puka Nacua they found the ideal receiver to combine with Cooper Kupp.

Now the Rams hierarchy has a choice: Do they push some chips up the middle and try to squeeze out the last drops from the Stafford-Kupp-Aaron Donald axis? Or do they continue to build for the future, bringing in a fill-in for Stafford at quarterback and retaining some cap flexibility for the future?

The Rams enter the offseason in a strong position. They will get their full allotment of day one and day two draft picks for the first time in years, as well as $40 million in cap space, with the ability to open up much more.

They can choose any path they want. And given the resumes of Les Snead and Sean McVay, the resume they choose will likely be the right one.