and I believe that it is Kyle's inconsistencies that make it tough to really evaluate the offensive scheme and some situational decisions.
A couple concerns of mine that I really don't know the answer to.
1-Is there are reason Kyler does not audible or utilize hot routes at that LOS? This is a very important aspect of playing QB and running a solid offense. Getting out of plays that the defense has the correct call for and into better plays is something every top QB does in the NFL. I feel like I have a guess about this, but I wish I knew.
2-Why does Kyler not set the protection? Maybe I am missing it but it seems like Cole is the one who I hear calling out the Mike and setting the protections.
3-Does Kyler call motion pre-snap? Or is that limited to a coaching or play decision. I have seen coaches do this two ways and I am really curious about this. Some coaches will design plays with pre-snnap motion and others will task their QB to determine how much pre-snap movement they want to try and identify coverage pre-snap.
2 is the one I was wondering about Saturday when Cole was false starting and getting blown up repeatedly even with Kinlaw out. Armstead and the other guy were just blasting him and I was wondering is Gaillard not playing because of his wife again, or is this because the C sets the protections in our system and they trust Cole to do that better than Gaillard? Because it sure appears to me that gaillard is as good or better than Cole, with more upside since he's stronger.
An aside, a friend is a big Dolphin fan, earlier in the year I questioned the move to start Tua and he said the reports fans were given suggested he was ready but they all had the same concern, how much impact would it have on the offense because Fitzmagic is so good as a veteran at seeing what's there and a rookie might not. He said the Dolphins fan sites are reporting the main reasons they have pulled Tua multiple times now is not throwing guys open, checking down way too often, and the primary one, protections, he's getting sacked 50% more often than Fitz did, despite all the checkdowns, Fitzmagic averages 1.5 more yards per attempt, the primary issue with him has always been INT's and again this year he has 8, Tua has 2, but they went back to Fitzmagic because they want to see more plays downfield and they are concerned Tua doesn't understand protections nearly as well and it will lead to more sacks if he starts looking downfield more.
I have Ekeler in fantasy(finished 2nd) and in their game I watched some they were talking about how Ekeler has had to change his playing style some because of Herbert. He hold the ball longer because he's so confident he can avoid the sack or stand in there and still get the ball off, as a result it impacts the timing on the passes to Ekeler and as a result his YPC number is way down this year, over 10 his first 3 years, at 7.7 this year. They said the primary difference is he has to more aware of staying in to block because herbert holds the ball longer or doesn't always see blitzes the way Rivers did(duh veteran to rookie) so it has impacted the timing.
I do suspect you're right though I think Cole is setting protections or at least more involved in it than other teams might have their C.
It definitely impacted the last game not just the false starts but all those safety blitzes in the empty packages seemed to take Kyler by surprise quite a bit