Thoughts About the NFL Running Game and Some Najee Harris Talk

I listened today to Colin Cowherd talking with Mark Schlereth, who through the course of their conversation said something to the effect that if you have to scheme your running game, you don’t have a running game. That immediately made me think of two things. Two coaches, actually.

Green Bay and NFL legend Vince Lombardi (how did I forget his first name for a second there? We share it) and Anthony Lynn. For the opposite ends of the same spectrum.

Vince Lombardi is famous for only running a handful of plays - ever. I’m sure he had a pithy quote about it I’m not going to look for, but basically the philosophy was that if you had to scheme offense, you didn’t have an offense. Anthony Lynn got the head coaching gig in Los Angeles (with the Chargers) because he was the Running Game Coordinator for Rex Ryan in New York and Buffalo. Lynn was widely considered to be the reason those teams were successful on offense - he was regarded as the best running game schemer in the League.

This is, naturally, related back to the Dolphins.

Tony Soprano taught me that if you don’t have a consistent running game, you don’t have an offense. The 2008 Dolphins went to the Playoffs - where they were quickly exposed and shellacked by the Ravens - on the back of the two-headed monster that was Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams and the silly scheme that was the Wildcat. The easy thing to point out right now is that the Wildcat was a way to scheme up the running game. And it’s not entirely wrong. But I think it’s wrong.

The Wildcat was maybe a five-play package. You’ve got the Dive, you’ve got the jet sweep. After that, you’ve got misdirection and plays that take too long to develop in the NFL. It worked that 2008 season because it wasn’t a scheme. They didn’t bring it out to catch teams napping. They used it because they didn’t have a serviceable passing game.

The Wildcat was quickly exposed by the end of the Playoffs and became a joke by 2009. Because by then it was a way to scheme a running game. The defenses post-2008 figured out that Miami didn’t have a passing game and were able to key in on the rushing attack.

And if you can’t line up and run your four or five core running plays - Iso, Dive, off-tackle, sweep, and counter - you don’t have a running game.

The 2020 Miami Dolphins did not have a running game. It exposed the flaws in their pass catchers. I’ve said it here before, and I’ll say it again. If you can’t bang the middle of the field with your tight ends and running backs, you can’t move the chains. Drive after drive, Miami was 3rd-and-long trying to force slant and deep-ins to beat the pass rush. Ryan Fitzpatrick made it look nearly effortless. But Ryan Fitzpatrick has played behind patchwork lines and with middling pass catchers his entire career. That’s part of why he makes the mistakes he makes.

Tua Tagovailoa is not Ryan Fitzpatrick. He hasn’t played for 17 seasons, for example. He isn’t tall enough to see over his offensive linemen when they’re stood up on their heels and being pushed back by a bull rush because the defensive line doesn’t have to respect the threat of the run or the play action. Play after play and drive after drive, Tua had no one to throw to across the middle of the field.

Don’t get me wrong. Gesicki was there, and he played great in five or six games. But that was all Tua had.

This feels like it’s working its way toward another plea for Kyle Pitts, but I actually want to move away from pass catchers. I’ve been wanting to look at the runners coming up in this draft class. I didn’t. But I did take a few hours to look at and listen to Najee Harris.

I’m not a talent evaluator. But when I look at Najee Harris’s tape, I see Jamal Charles. I know NFL Network and Move the Sticks podcaster Daniel Jeremiah sees Matt Forte in his game, and I couldn’t disagree at all. Najee does not have Derrick Henry’s bulk; but he looks tall on the field. His waist and hips are slim, but he has a ton of power in his legs. He’s able to keep his shoulders square, and he is able to dip them about as low as anyone I’ve ever seen who isn’t, I don’t know, sub-5’8. He runs routes and catches the ball like a receiver, and he seems to excel at making the first guy miss.

You can only tell so much from highlight reels on YouTube. You see a lot of the same plays cut together, and I’m not making money at this. Lol, so there’s just no way I’m hunting down his all-22 tape just to pat myself on the back. I’m not that invested in draft analysis.

I think there are three keys to being a great running back in the NFL.

1. You have to make the first guy miss. Every time. Not some of the time. Every time.

2. You have to get what’s blocked. If there’s three yards blocked, you’d better get four.

3. You have to be able to catch the ball. Coaches make a big deal about pass protection. And I agree. Watching a drive stall on third and short because your running back whiffed on the free rusher is momentum-stalling. But, to me, a runner who keeps linebackers and nickel corners on their heels because he could smash them in the mouth if they blitz or flat beat them if he leaves the backfield is the most valuable thing of all.

So maybe a coda that pass protection is a big deal, too.

If the Miami Dolphins want to get over the hump and find themselves in consistent Playoff contention, they have to get a three-down back.

Najee Harris is gonna be that back for somebody.