The Miami Dolphins’ secondary is very much the identity of this football team in 2020. The Dolphins, with several big-money contracts invested into the likes of Xavien Howard and Byron Jones, boast an embarrassment of riches on the backend — the latest reminder that head coach Brian Flores is a disciple of the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick. With the Dolphins’ personnel on the back end, the team figures to be well aligned to handle matchups in coverage week in and week out.
But one spot does linger for the Dolphins as something of a sore spot in the secondary — if for no other reason than because there’s no proven commodity there.
Free safety.
For many football fans, free safety is viewed as a premiere position — the opportunity to roam the back end of the defense and hunt the football can be a key role in generating turnovers. But for the Dolphins, there is offered no firm answer on if that void can be filled. Bobby McCain is currently scheduled to serve in that role for the defense, but he only has 9 games of experience playing the position, which came in 2019 for Flores and company and led to a fair share of ups and downs.
Could another cornerback step into the role? Could the Dolphins take advantage of their superior depth at corner and shift someone else to play at free safety? One other member of the Dolphins’ secondary does have free safety experience — and it is one of their newest contributors, Byron Jones.
Jones spent two of his seasons in Dallas playing safety between the 2016 and 2017 seasons; an experiment that ended ahead of the 2018 season with the addition of Kris Richard (former finalist for the Dolphins’ head coaching vacancy in 2019). Jones logged each of his two career interceptions over those two seasons, but he ultimately was charged with playing closer to the line of scrimmage as time went on. That misuse of his talent helped prompt the move to cornerback full time.
Could the Dolphins charge Jones with playing free safety? Sure, they could. And in any given week, you may see Jones take some reps in space. But to ask him to play there permanently would temper his value for the Dolphins and be a mis-managed opportunity; especially considering what the cost was to secure Jones’ services. Don’t expect Jones to be a possible replacement at free safety in the long-term, because the Dolphins’ system is going to lean heavily on press man coverage to interrupt the timing of opposing passing offenses. Jones’ length and athleticism are most valuable to the team serving as one-half of a lockdown duo on the outside.
And in the meantime, the team will likely call on an interchangeable collection of secondary defenders to serve as the free safety at any given time — as the more looks and personnel Miami can throw at opposing coaches, the harder it will be to scheme up who is responsible for what in the Dolphins’ secondary.