Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel add serious spice to Brian Flores’ Vikings blitzes

Brian Flores’ blitz-happy Vikings defense got two major pieces for the future in edge-rushers Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel.

If there’s one thing you know about Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, it’s that he’s going to bring more defenders after the quarterback than just about anybody else in the league. Last season, the Vikings ranked first in the NFL with a blitz rate of 51.5%, though their pressure rate of 21.9% was far more middle of the pack.

So, while it’s highly likely that star edge-rusher Danielle Hunter will be on the move in free agency, the Vikings reinforced their edges with two highly interesting pass-rushers. Minnesota agreed to terms with former Texans defender Jonathan Greenard, and also with former Dolphins defender Andrew Van Ginkel. Van Ginkel was selected by the Dolphins in the fifth round of the 2019 draft out of Wisconsin, and as Flores was Miami’s head coach from 2019-2021, there’s some familiarity there.

Greenard played in a Houston Texans defense in which blitzing was hardly the order of the day — Houston blitzed on just 21% of their snaps last season — but when Greenard was involved in some sort of extra pressure, he was able to make the most of it.

As for Van Ginkel, who also had 53 pressures last season, a full 32 came on some kind of blitz, and he was more than happy to be an Agent of Chaos when that happened.

So, while he may lose Hunter in free agency, Flores has two new pieces to his ornate defense who can really get things done.

Panthers make major move for ex-Dolphins guard (and #THICCSIX star) Robert Hunt

Robert Hunt goes to the Panthers as a top-tier guard, and a sneaky red-zone #THICCSIX weapon. What’s not to like?

The Carolina Panthers are all too aware that they need to surround second-year quarterback Bryce Young with as much talent as possible, and the team took a big step forward in that regard on Monday by agreeing to terms with former Miami Dolphins offensive guard Robert Hunt on a massive deal.

Over four seasons with the Miami Dolphins, Hunt has allowed a total of nine sacks and 61 total pressures, with one sack and five total pressures allowed in 376 pass-blocking snaps. The Dolphins have one of the NFL’s most complex and multi-faceted run game, and Hunt was a bastion of consistency on a line that was a bit all over the place. Which is what Hunt will try and solve in his new home.

Moreover, Hunt adds a potential red zone target for Young — you can read more about this particular play here.

Dolphins guard Robert Hunt cheated out of greatest Big Man Touchdown ever

Christian Wilkins agrees to terms with Raiders in massive deal for great defender

The Las Vegas Raiders have very bad news for opposing quarterbacks: Christian Wilkins and Maxx Crosby are now on the same team.

Former Miami Dolphins defensive lineman Christian Wilkins, one of the best players in the 2024 wave of free agency, will have a new home. Per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Wilkins will get a four-year contract with $110 million in base value, and $84 million guaranteed.

Those are weighty numbers that put Wilkins among the NFL’s top defensive tackles, but he’s put up enough numbers of his own for that contract to be quite reasonable. Selected by the Dolphins with the 13th overall pick in the 2019 draft out of Clemson, Wilkins had 10 sacks, 61 total pressures, 40 tackles, and 34 stops last season. The 6-foot-4, 310-pund Wilkins can win from just about any gap — he played 16% of his snaps at edge last season — and he faced some kind of double team on 301 of his snaps, getting two sacks and 33 total pressures when doubled.

It’s likely that when Wilkins lines up next to edge demon Maxx Crosby in Las Vegas’ fronts, he’ll face far fewer double-teams than that.

4-Down Territory: Tua Tagovailoa, Mike McCarthy, Nick Sirianni, Worst of the Week

In this week’s “4-Down Territory,” the guys get into Tua Tagovailoa, Mike McCarthy, Nick Sirianni, and the Worst of the Week for the wild-card round.

Now that the wild-card round of the playoffs is over, it’s time once again for Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, and Kyle Madson of Niners Wire, to come to the table with their own unique brand of analysis in “4-Down Territory.”

This week, the guys have some serious questions to answer:

  1. What should the Miami Dolphins do with Tua Tagovailoa?
  2. Should this be the end for Mike McCarthy in Dallas?
  3. Has Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni become more an liability than an asset?
  4. What was our Worst of the Week?

You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “4-Down Territory” podcast on Spotify…

and on Apple Podcasts.

Tua Tagovailoa hits Tyreek Hill for Dolphins touchdown

Tua Tagovailoa connected with Tyreek Hill for a Dolphins touchdown in the second quarter

The Miami Dolphins needed an answer Saturday at Arrowhead after falling behind the Kansas City Chiefs, 10-0.

It took all of two plays to cover 62 yards with Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill teaming on both plays.

The first was a short pass that the speedy Hill took for nine yards.

The second was a long pass that The Cheetah collected and managed to evade Chiefs tacklers en route to the end zone for 53 yards.

After the PAT, it was a 10-7 game.

One voter’s 2023 AP First-Team All-Pro ballot

If you’ve ever wanted to see an official First-Team All-Pro ballot, we have you covered.

There are moments in your career where you think to yourself… “Yeah, this is a moment to remember.” Two years ago, when the Associated Press asked me to be one of the analysts responsible for voting for the First- and Second-Team All-Pro teams, as well as NFL Most Valuable Player and all other individual awards, that was certainly such a moment for me.

So, this is my second year of voting, and I wanted to share my first-team ballot with our readers. It’s an honor I take incredibly seriously, and this process involves a ton of advanced metrics, tape study, and reflections from a season of diving into both.

Some of these votes were easy; some were incredibly difficult. But it will give you a bit of insight into what happens with an All-Pro vote.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Super Wild-Card Weekend

In this week’s “Xs and Os,” Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar preview Super Wild-Card Weekend with tape study and advanced metrics.

It’s time for Super Wild-Card Weekend! Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, are here to get you ready for the most interesting matchups that could decide who advances to the divisional round.

Browns at Texans: Will the Browns defense under Jim Schwartz have answers for C.J. Stroud’s excellence against single-high coverage? Nobody plays more of it than Schwartz’s guys.

Dolphins at Chiefs: It’ll be very cold at Arrowhead Stadium, which puts the focus on the run game. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel has all kinds of wrinkles in his rushing attack, and we discuss a new one with rookie De’Von Achane.

Steelers at Bills: Can the Steelers counter the Bills’ improving defense with shot plays from Mason Rudolph? And what does T.J. Watt’s injury mean for Josh Allen?

Packers at Cowboys: Everyone’s talking about Jordan Love and Dak Prescott here, but watch out for Green Bay’s run game with Aaron Jones as the lead dog.

Rams at Lions: Similarly, while everyone’s talking about the Matthew Stafford-Jared Goff “Revenge Game,” don’t sleep on these two great rushing attacks. Kyren Williams has changed Sean McVay’s run schemes to great effect.

Eagles at Buccaneers: Bucs head coach Todd Bowles is the Greg Maddux of blitzers — he’ll throw everything at you with a little spin at the end. How will Jalen Hurts react, when he’s struggled against pressure most of this season? Also, Baker Mayfield and his receivers could feast on Philly’s misbegotten pass defense.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into all of it.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os,” previewing every game in the wild-card slate, right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

and on Apple Podcasts.

WIth De’von Achane, Dolphins’ motion and misdirection could be trouble for Chiefs’ defense

The Dolphins are a much better offense when running back De’von Achane is on the field, and the Chiefs are about to find that out.

If there’s one thing you know about the Miami Dolphins’ run game, it’s that it’s packed with pre-snap motion. If there’s another thing you know about the Miami Dolphins’ run game, it’s that you’re going to see a ton of misdirection to put defenses on their heels, creating more explosive opportunities.

It’s important to remember that head coach Mike McDaniel was Kyle Shanahan’s run game coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers from 2017 through 2020 before becoming San Francisco’s offensive coordinator in 2021, and then getting the Dolphins job in 2022. So, there are a lot of similar concepts, and a lot of what the Dolphins run in their ground game could be said to be Shanahan’s stuff sped up about 20% because the Dolphins have such dynamic athletes on the field.

One of those dynamic athletes this season is rookie running back De’von Achane, the Olympic-level track star and Texas A&M alum who Miami took with the 85th pick in the third round of the 2023 draft. Achane ran a 4.32-40-yard dash at his scouting combine, and all of that speed has shown up on the field. This season, Achane has gained 804 yards and scored eight rushing touchdowns on just 102 carries, which gives him an insane 7.9 yards per carry average. Achane has 13 carries of 15 or more yards on the season, meaning that he’s good for a potential house call on more than one of every 10 carries.

Beyond the straight-line speed, Achane is also a real problem for defenses aligned in McDaniel’s motion and misdirection concepts. This was really true in Miami’s 21-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the 2023 regular-season finale. Achane had 10 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown in the game, and all three of his explosive plays came from a similar — and highly original — run scheme.

Each of these runs also featured pre-snap motion (of course), but the real tricky part was having Tua Tagovailoa taking the snap in the Pistol formation, and Achane right behind him. Advocates of the Pistol in the run game will tell you that putting smaller backs right behind the quarterback (Achane is 5-foot-8 and 188 pounds) makes it hard for a defense to get a clean run fit right off the snap, because the back is hard to see.

Now, we get into the misdirection fakes on each of those three plays. As seen below, Tagovailoa faked a handoff to his left to… well, nobody. The idea here was to get the same player on all three plays — Bills linebacker Tyrel Dodson — and it worked on runs of 11, 16, and 25 yards.

Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo will have to deal with all this stuff when Kansas City and Miami face off Saturday in the wild-card round of the playoffs. The Dolphins and Chiefs played each other in Week 9 over in Germany. Achane didn’t play in that game — he had a knee injury that put him on short-term injured reserve — but Spags is well aware that he’s scheming it up against a different offense now. He was asked Wednesday whether there’s an advantage to facing a team for the second time in a season.

“There may be some truth to that because we all say in this league it’s hard to beat a team twice, right? I think it helps the players in that they know the person that they line up directly against, but to both sides, there’s no advantage there either way. I’m sure they’ll change some things. We’ll have a couple of new wrinkles. It’ll be a whole different game, and it’ll be in a different country [laughter]. It’ll be a different game.”

It’ll also be below zero from a wind chill perspective in Kansas City for the game, which could have both teams leaning more on the run game.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into all the parts of Miami’s run game that could have them advancing to the divisional round. You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os,” previewing every game in the wild-card slate, right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

and on Apple Podcasts.

Riveting story of Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel overcoming alcohol issues

Mike McDaniel opens up about how alcohol issues almost cost him his NFL career

You never know what it takes people to get where they are until they tell you what they have overcome.

To that point, the NFL shared a tweet on Wednesday about how Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel’s battle with alcohol could have cost him his career.

The story starts when he was an assistant. Let him tell it.

Dolphins hoping history repeats in frigid Kansas City

Fifteen or so years ago the Dolphins had success in frozen Kansas City

The weather forecast for Saturday in Kansas City calls for temperatures to hover around 0 and that means the wind chill will be way worse.

No weather for a team from Miami but the Dolphins will face the Chiefs in an AFC Wild Card game at Arrowhead.

The coldest game in Dolphins franchise history took place in Kansas City in 2008 and Miami came away with a 38-31 win.

It was the next-to-last week of the regular season and Chad Pennington threw three touchdown passes.

Per AP:

The temperature at the noon kickoff was 10 degrees with a wind chill of minus-12, the coldest conditions the Dolphins have ever played in. No doubt it was even icier when Pennington engineered a 13-play, 85-yard drive capped by his tiebreaking 14-yard TD pass to Anthony Fasano with 4:08 left.

“Right now, [the drive] is a blur,” Pennington said. “It was so cold, my brain is not working real well. I can just remember time after time it was somebody making a play, breaking a tackle, making a catch, making a big block, making play after play to keep the drive going.”

At 10 degrees, it was exactly 30 degrees colder than the coldest home game the Dolphins played, on Dec. 24, 1989 against, of all teams, the Chiefs. … Dolphins lost their previous coldest game, 14-10, at New England. … The coldest game played at Arrowhead kicked off at zero degrees on Dec. 18, 1983.