Dave Hyde: A Miami Dolphins embarrassment that goes right to the top

The night, the season — maybe this full Miami Dolphins era — began to collapse on the fourth offensive play Monday night, the one where their best player dropped a lateral pass, didn’t realize it was a fumble and watched the ball roll on the field.

Wasn’t Tyreek Hill aware? Hadn’t that issue been mentioned in practice? What are they even doing in practice?

“It could have been a different game,’’ coach Mike McDaniel said after the Dolphins lost the fumble on their first possession of the embarrassing 31-12 loss to previously winless Tennessee.

This is the season McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier built. They didn’t value the backup quarterback position even when it looked like a problem in training camp. They chuckled at reporters who wondered about the offensive line, yet they are afraid to run the ball into that line.

They built a so-comfortable culture around a team that had won nothing of consequence in a way that contributed to this tofu-soft product. New, unnecessary contracts to make everyone happy. Days off from practice as part of the environment. Trusting players to work harder, so not doing traditional stuff like running sprints. Working in a way that veteran Calais Campbell said the word was practices were “easy,” when he asked players before signing here (they did do more practice repetitions, he said).

All that folded into McDaniel’s new-NFL idea of calling players his, “teammates.” Players like Tua Tagovailoa went the extra step. They said it was “their team, not Mike’s.”

Can they own that idea now?

Because there was quarterback Tyler “Snoop” Huntley, in town for two weeks, taking questions from the media after Monday’s tragi-comedy while Hill went out the back door without taking questions. That’s not the problem, of course. It’s just a sign of them.

“Everything is on the table,’’ McDaniel said of what he does now.

It’s hard to know what that means four games into the season. He didn’t bench Julian Hill for having four penalties against Seattle. Is he going to bench anyone now? Cut someone to send a harsher message?

Will they get a more proven quarterback? Build an offensive line? Find how to get the tight end into the offense?

All that should have been on the table last February when big decisions were made.

“If you want to know how valuable Tua is to this offense ….” ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky said at one point Monday night.

That’s the too-easy take. Any starting quarterback is valuable. Tua is good. Everyone knows that. He’s also fragile, a couple steps from great and presents a lingering where-does-this-go question for the organization.

Besides, the larger truth is this offense has played one good quarter (the fourth quarter against Jacksonville in the opener) over the past seven games, dating back to last season — regardless of who was playing quarterback. Tua played in five of those games, too. They haven’t scored more than 20 points in any of them.

The drop-off from him to whoever is the glaring part now. Teams across the league are winning with backups who have far less playmaking talent than the Dolphins have. The bottom-line is McDaniel and Grier either misread their backup quarterback situation starting with Skylar Thompson, or they didn’t take it seriously enough.

Either way, it’s not Huntley’s fault. It starts at the top.

This is the kind of mistake a first-time coach like McDaniel can make. But a veteran GM like Grier? How could he not protect the organization with a solid backup quarterback? And from the lack of a third receiver? And from a cornerback situation that looks anxious when one goes down? And from an offensive line McDaniel’s short-yardage play-calling shows he’s afraid to run behind.

Sweeps? End runs? McDaniel called each on fourth-and-one Monday night. Each failed. He evidently didn’t trust running up the middle, like the Titans did all night. The Dolphins are just 4-for-30 in converting third and fourth downs the past two games.

Tennessee’s backup quarterback Mason Rudolph, thrust into the game in the first quarter, admitted: “I didn’t do a whole lot on my own.” He mostly handed off the ball in a steady, if not splashy, Titans running game (40 carries for 142 yards, a 3.6-yard average). It proved more than enough.

The good news: The Dolphins sit in the No. 2 position in the draft. Or is that good news as September turns to October? When they’ve doled out so many big-money contracts? When the closing window to win is now? What does owner Steve Ross do if this season continues down a dark hole?

What’s certain is an unearned arrogance inside this Dolphins franchise is gone. They did some fun things and scored a lot of points last year against uncertain defenses. They also won nothing of consequence while acting like they re-invented football right down to re-naming a position as “F.”

Now that’s the grade of a September right out of 2007 or 2019 or any of the worst Dolphins seasons. They were blown out at home Monday night by a winless team playing its backup quarterback. It wasn’t just embarrassing.

It says if answers aren’t found, and quick, they can lose to anyone from here out.