BY SEAN DONOVAN
Head coach Joe Philbin was expected to bring a quicker tempo to the Miami Dolphins offense until, well, he didn't.
The Dolphins ranked towards the middle of the pack in Football Outsiders' pace metrics in each of Philbin's first two seasons, but that high expectation is back after Miami hired offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, who coached in the Philadelphia Eagles' top-paced offense of 2013.
Lazor spoke on the topic at the Dolphins' offseason program, and he set about redefining what the term "tempo" might mean to his new offense.
“When you hear the word tempo being spoke about, there are probably a couple of different meanings," he said last week, via The Miami Herald. "One of the meanings when we say tempo to our guys, we talk about from the break of the huddle until the snap of the ball.
"Even when we are in a huddle, we talk about playing with a certain tempo when we break the huddle until we snap the ball. As we go forward, there will be some other times we will choose to operate a different way, and tempo will take on some other meanings."
Lazor was quick to qualify that some of the rapid-pace practices the media saw during Miami's first offseason program were just installation of some short passing aspects of his offense, but he also made clear his expectations of the quarterback once the ball is snapped.
"In general in our passing game the ball is going to come out on time," Lazor said. "When number one is open, the quarterback is going to take whatever his set-drop is when the ball is coming out. If number one is one-on-one, we expect him to win so we expect to throw the football. Hopefully you see that a lot."
