DKphin
Club Member
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...aveHyde-blog+(Dave+Hyde+|+Sun+Sentinel+blogs)Here’s the number the Dolphins consider as they revamp their defense this off-season and eye draft options:
Sixty-five percent.
That’s the percent of plays offenses senses lined up against them in a three-receiver set last year. That’s the trend across the NFL, of course, and it plays directly into the thinking of the 11th pick overall.
Washington defensive tackle Vita Vea? He’s good. He’d take the place of the departed star Ndamukong Suh. The question is if there are other options that fit better into this three-wide idea. The Dolphins will be looking for some help at defensive tackle, but that’s not that their first thought right now.
That’s because this 65-percent issue also has molded the Dolphins off-season thoughts on using their defensive line. They added Robert Quinn to the roster and the model now is the 2011 New York Giants. Remember the Giants’ Super Bowl win against New England? THey played defensive ends Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck played at the same time and pressured Tom Brady on 20 of his 43 passes.
The Dolphins plan to move defensive end William Hayes inside a lot this year. That will put an extra pass rusher (who is also a good run-stopper) on the field. They also will have other options at times — a line with four defensive ends? — because they’re rich at pass-rushing ends in Cameron Wake, Robert Quinn, Charles Harris and Andre Branch. (Too rich? Do they really need four?)
This gets to the draft: If their quarterback doesn’t fall to them – and that’s the working idea right now - the need for help in pass coverage matters. The dovetails into the need for a starting, athletic linebacker so tight ends don’t go unchecked like the last couple of seasons.The Dolphins finished 28th in covering tight ends, according to Football Outsiders, and 18th against covering running backs.
Georgia’s Roquan Smith? Virginia Tech’s Tremaine Edmunds (son of former Dolphins tight end Ferrell Edmunds?) They’d fit the bill, though both could get gone by the time the Dolphins pick.
Another name that would help in the draft if he somehow fell there: Alabama’s Minkah Fitzpatrick. He can play safety or cornerback — the perfect hybrid for not just the passing age but the era where big-hitting safeties are being diminished by rule changes.
The question of this defensive makeover is whether opposing teams went three-receiver wide on the Dolphins because that’s just the way of the NFL right now or also because the Dolphins didn’t have the personnel to match up.
The Dolphins ranked 19th at yielding 7.2 yards per pass in 2017.
They ranked 17th at yelding 4.1 yards per rushing attempt last year.
The three-receiver set makes the nickle package really the base defense in the league these days. You need more cornerbacks, more athletic linebackers. Of course, you can run out of it, too, as the Dolphins did effectively by the end of the season with Kenyan Drake
The Dolphins’ offense used three-receiver sets 73 percent of the time in 2017, according to the website SharpFootballStats.com. New England, however, only used it 44 percent of the time.
We’ll see if this defense improves under this thinking. We’ll see if a team like New England doesn’t see what the Dolphins are doing and, as Bill Belichick has done, decide to play old-school, smash-mouth football and run on them. But it’s clear what he Dolphins need to finish off the philosophy. They need a starting linebacker who can run. Of course, whatever the philosophy, they need a starting linebacker just to line up this fall.