By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The 2016 Dolphins offense is going to take a minute to get going, folks.

It is almost certainly not going to sing in four-part harmony the first time coach Adam Gase gives his unit voice in the Seattle regular-season opener.

The offense is a work in progress, and because the players are mostly young and new to each other and the coach, and his scheme, getting all that to look as if everyone has been together for years is close to impossible.

Gase almost certainly does not share my opinion that his offense will take a long time to function like a well-oiled machine. He has not said it publicly, but privately he has promised his players, assistants and others within the organization that his unit will be quite good.

He promises privately this offense is going to be right.

The first-time head coach, it should be noted, is not a first-time offensive coordinator. Only 38 years old, Gase has been something of an offensive prodigy since that day a decade ago when Mike Martz started helping him learn the same concepts that helped the Rams ‘Greatest Show on Turf” offense of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

And so Gase is certain — certain! — some things about this offense will be true:

He is certain the Dolphins will protect the quarterback.

He is certain the Dolphins will do things these players excel at rather than expecting them to execute things they’re not able to do because, well, that’s the scheme.

By the way, anyone familiar with recent Dolphins history is aware Tannehill has been sacked 184 times during his career, more than any quarterback in the league since 2012.

Gase promises that will stop, and one way is the Dolphins are going to throw the football quickly. A lot.

The NFL is mostly a fast pitch-and-catch league now. Last year, for example, 74.7 percent of Tom Brady’s passes were thrown 10 yards or less downfield. Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw 37 percent of his attempts 1 yard or less downfield.

The idea is to get the football out of the quarterback’s hands and to playmakers as quickly as possible. The idea is to keep the quarterback from getting hit so often.

It should not surprise if the Miami offense takes a month or two to find its groove. The surprise would be if this unit can go from infancy to full-blown maturity by the start of the season.

I don’t see that happening. What I see when I look at this Dolphins offense is the 1981 Washington Redskins.

That, like these latter day Dolphins, was a franchise with a great history and storied tradition. It was awesome. But like the Dolphins, that franchise had fallen on hard times when they hired this hot shot offensive coordinator.

Enter Joe Gibbs.

Gibbs installed an innovative offense that summer of 1981. And early in the fall that offense stunk.

The Redskins started 0-5.

But the thing eventually started to click. Suddenly the Counter-Gap became a thing. Suddenly the Fun Bunch started enjoying their more frequent trips to the end zone. Suddenly John Riggins got rolling behind a massive offensive line.

Gibbs, calling the plays, hit a groove.

And the Redskins were 8-3 over the final 11 games to salvage an 8-8 season.

That offense was dominant the next few years.

I’m not predicting that is exactly what will happen with Gase and this Dolphins offense. I’m saying even an offense with the potential to be record-setting, as the Redskins of yesteryear were, can start slow and needs time to build.

Give this Dolphins offense the courtesy of that time.