Why in the hell didn't Miami's Phillip Dorsett get the ball thrown his way more often last season?!
No, seriously, I want an answer!
Here I am trying to evaluate this kid and I can't focus because I'm getting angrier and angrier as I watch more film. Miami out and out refused to feed him the damn ball in any of those five games. (For the purposes of this breakdown I went over to Draft Breakdown and watched Miami play against Arkansas State, Georgia Tech, Cincy, Florida State and Virginia).
I mean straight up refused.
What tha fuck, bruh?
When they did give Dorsett opportunities down the field he torched pretty much every cat who lined up across from him. The problem, and I'm basically repeating myself here, is the coaching staff just didn't find ways to increase his opportunities.
Again, somebody needs to explain that shit to me. Or better yet explain it to the handful of Hurricanes fans left.
Check it, Dorsett was third on the team in receptions. Third... Behind a tight end and a running back.
Dude...........
But check this: he was also first on the team in receiving yards by damn near TWO HUNNIT over the aforementioned tight end, Clive Walford. That's because Dorsett averaged 24.2 yards a reception! That's more than two first downs worth of field position this kid was giving the Canes on average when he caught the ball and yet Dorsett only tallied more than three catches four times last season. Let's be real now, three catches a game ain't shit. If you can't do better than that to showcase your most explosive receiver, your offensive coordinator fucking sucks!
Oh, and I also must point out that 10 of Dorsett's 36 catches went for touchdowns. Scoring a touchdown every 3.6 times you catch a pass is frigging nuts!
How is it that a player with world class speed (4.33 at the Combine, 4.27 at his pro day) who only had two drops in five games can't even get to 40 catches on the season?
How, Sway?
Or how about this, how in the hell do you throw only one screen pass in five games to Dorsett?
One.
Even then, that screen pass was meant for Dorsett to turn and throw it down the field rather than run it. I shit you not.
And lest you think to yourself "well, maybe they used him on a bunch of reverses/end arounds to get the ball in his hands instead," nope. NOPE!
That failed double pass screen bullshit counted as one of the two carries on the ground Dorsett had on the season.
That's why I don't want to hear any got damn excuses about Miami having a young quarterback. When you have a guy behind center who hasn't played a lot of games, that is the perfect situation to employ all kinds of screens because those are easy passes. Hell, it's not like Miami didn't run any screens.
But see, instead of throwing him the screens, they used all 5'10, 185 pounds of Dorsett as a blocker on screens for other, lesser wide receivers on their roster. You're damn right I said lesser, and I didn't stutter. Phillip Dorsett was by far the best wide receiver on Miami's team last season, but he might as well have been some random walk-on at times from they way they used him. Or didn't use him, more accurately.
I give Dorsett a ton of credit for his blocking because most guys his size throw those "look out" blocks. You know, run hard at the guy then just kinda stick your elbow out at him as he goes by you and you shout "look out" to the running back. Dorsett at least endeavored to get his hands on the guys he was trying to block.
At the same time it just didn't make the sense that Miami didn't find more ways to include him in the offense. How their offensive coordinator still has a job is beyond me. What I do know, however, is that Dorsett's best days are definitely ahead of him.
Dorsett isn't just fast, he is also explosive (37-inch vertical at the combine). Maybe best of all, he is very good at tacking on extra yards after the catch. Because of his size he may not ever be a true No. 1 receiver, but I can see Dorsett being one hell of a complimentary receiver. A guy who can take the top off a defense and also take a shallow crosser to the house.
If Phillip Dorsett fucks around and goes to a team with a good offensive coordinator, a good quarterback and a decent offensive line, you better watch the hell out. As I pointed out last year before the draft when I broke down Kelvin Benjamin, a lot of those kinds of teams tend to pick at the bottom of the first round of the draft.
I know most people see Dorsett as a second round pick or maybe even worse, but I'm not so sure he won't end up being one of the top three or four guys in terms of production from this draft, eventually. So if I'm picking late in the first round, I would have to at least consider taking him, especially if my quarterback and offensive line were already set.
This kid checks off damn near all the boxes when it comes to what you want in a wide receiver. And even though he isn't tall by today's standard, he isn't exactly short either when it comes to NFL wide receivers. Then you also have the option of using him on returns as well, even though he didn't exactly impress me as a return man in the games that I watched. I think about Brandin Cooks and that first year he had with the Saints and I think you could possibly get similar production out of Dorsett in the right situation.
It's just a shame his college coaches did not have a fucking clue.