Are the Dolphins Taking Special Teams Seriously?

An explosive Offense can take you to the playoffs. Defense wins championships, but Special Teams can destroy your season. For proof, look no further than the 2010 San Diego Chargers, a team coming off of a 13-3 season that looked poised to once again be a force to be reckoned with, sporting an offense and defense that would finish the season as the top-ranked units on their respective sides of the ball. However, the team would finish 9-7, behind the Kansas City Chiefs in their own division and outside of the playoffs altogether. This was due to their outrageously poor special teams’ play. For an in-depth retelling of the 2010 Chargers season, check out this Secret Base Dorktown episode. 

So it should come as little surprise that Dolphins fans were distraught over the special teams play displayed by the team over the past couple of seasons. Under the tutelage of former Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman, the Miami Dolphins Special Teams units were routinely ranked at or near the bottom of the league.

On a game-by-game basis, you might not notice it too much, but the lackluster performances add up over time, and with the Dolphins having almost no margin for error due to Tua missing so much time last season, you could make a case that they dropped a win over the course of the season. One more win means that the Dolphins likely make the playoffs and who knows what would have happened. I mean, we can probably guess that the two-seed Buffalo Bills knocked us out once again, but it did take a last-second 61-yard field goal for the Bills to outlast the Dolphins in their most recent meeting. 

Putting aside hypothetical playoff matches for a moment and returning to reality, the Miami Dolphins parted ways with Crossman early this offseason, and fans rejoiced. Convinced that the pressure to win in 2025 would force the team to take a big swing on their next hire. We waited with bated breath until it was announced that the team would hire former Tennessee Titans Special Teams Coordinator Craig Aukerman. If you’re anything like me, you probably rushed over to his Wikipedia page to inform your future X/Bluesky hottake. Was this the signing we’ve all been waiting for, or did the Miami Dolphins drop the ball once again? 

When looking at cold hard facts, Aukerman’s units were ranked 2nd in 2022 and 8th in 2023 by Pro Football Focus. At first glance, it seemed like we had our guy. However, his Wikipedia page dedicates nearly half of his “NFL Coaching” section to one game. December 4th, 2023, a Week 13, 31-28 overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts and the reason he was let go by the Titans. Naturally, I jumped over to the NFL YouTube channel to see if things were really so bad as to warrant immediate termination. 

It should be noted that the 2023 Tennessee Titans team was not very good, outside of a wild Monday night football come from behind victory at the expense of our Dolphins the team had little to celebrate. Coming into this match up they were 4-7, holding onto the smallest bit of hope for a playoff berth. With 26 seconds remaining in the third quarter, the Titans lined up to punt from their own 36-yard line. Ryan Stonehouse’s punt was blocked,d and Grant Stuard of the Colts picked the ball and returned it 18 yards for a touchdown to put the Colts up 22-17. A bad situation, to be sure, but there was still a lot of game to be played.

In fact, on the very next play, the Colts would go for 2, and it would be intercepted by Amani Hooker and returned for a 2-point conversion to make it 22-19. Disaster would strike again for the Titans’ special teams as with 13:48 left in the fourth quarter, they would line up to punt, this time from their own 22-yard line, and once again, it would be blocked. Tony Brown rushed in untouched, blocking the punt and, more importantly, injuring Stonehouse. The Punter tore his ACL and MCL and broke a bone in his non-kicking leg, understandably ending his season. This would lead to a field goal and a 25-19 lead. 

However, all was not lost as Will Levis found DeAndre Hopkins for a touchdown with 5:26 left, tying the game up at 25-25 and giving Tennessee an opportunity to take the lead. That’s when in place of the injured Stonehouse our old friend Ryan Tannehill took the field to hold the extra point, in Tannehill’s defense, this was not a situation he found himself in very many times during his career, and while the hold looked decent enough that was clearly not the case as the kick was missed wide left. To add insult to injury to bad holds, neither team would score again in regulation. 

In Overtime, Tannehill would find some redemption by holding the ball on a successful 46-yard field goal, but the Colts would get the opportunity for one more possession, which ended in a 4-yard TD pass from Gardner Minshew to Michael Pittman and a loss for the Titans. Aukerman was fired the very next day after an absolute disaster of a special teams performance. 

It would take more than a calendar year for Auckerman to find a new job with the Dolphins, and after watching the events that led to his departure from the Titans, I find myself conflicted. On the one hand, surely the Dolphins can’t play worse than they have the past few years… right? On the other hand, to have a failure so grand it gets immortalized on Aukerman’s wikipedia page, it almost feels like the Dolphins aren’t taking Special Teams seriously. I don’t know if Aukerman will be successful in Miami, but I do know that America loves a comeback story, so let’s hope we’re about to witness one.

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