Frank Smith Has Unfinished Business With the League’s Top Offense

After the Miami Dolphins were sent home with an early playoff exit in January, one of the architects of the league’s No. 1 offense was interviewed for a head coaching job.

Offensive coordinator Frank Smith and the Carolina Panthers did not end up together, so Smith will be returning for this third season in South Florida, where his focus will be on helping that top-ranked offense be even better.

The Dolphins offense did rank first in the league in total yards in 2023, but it came up short in the 26-7 playoff loss at Kansas City and in the six games against playoff opponents during the regular season.

For Smith, there is one place for emphasis.

“Ultimately, you take in certain segments of the year, but then you look at the entirety, and for us, it’s just OK, it’s making sure that we’re maximizing each week,” Smith said. “Because a game in November or December, losing can impact the end of the season. So it’s just making sure that what we’re doing at the end of the season, making sure that we’re setting the foundation now to make sure that we can carry things longer through the season. I wouldn’t say there’s really like one thing, because we did have a lot of success … Ultimately, for us, it’s just the execution. The last game of the season was tough, obviously going up there in the weather.”

It will be key for Smith to integrate new players, such as wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., tight end Jonnu Smith or rookie running back Jaylen Wright, with the Dolphins’ offensive identity. The process for improvement is a simple one for the Dolphins coaching staff.

Smith said the idea is for everyone to singularly reflect and improve so the team gets better as a whole.

“For us coaches as we end the season, we evaluate what we went through with last season, where can we get better, and then now we’re implementing it,” Smith said. “Ultimately where we can get better — individual techniques, understanding of things, maybe in-season we had some gameplan plays that we liked, get more manpower on it to be able to make it into our core, just stuff like that … I think ultimately, it starts with our individual process, how can we each individually get better, and it starts with us coaches through the offseason and now working with the guys just to get better at techniques.”

Despite remaining loyal to his current team, Smith did say that a head coaching job was his dream, his “why” as to choosing football as a vocation.

But for now, he will just view the process as a valuable experience, one that will benefit the Dolphins.

“Just stick to whatever is necessary today and be as present as I can to help the people that have given me the opportunity to be in this position,” Smith said. “I think it’s helped me be better here for Mike [McDaniel] and Chris [Grier] and just everyone with the program, because when you get challenged to think broader, it helps now when you go back to narrow, kind of being able to maybe see things because you had to think about things. Things that maybe you never would have thought about before you thought about, but you had to really narrow down.”