Dolphins’ defensive athleticism looms as big advantage in key matchups

Dolphins’ defensive athleticism looms as big advantage in key matchups

The Miami Dolphins’ blueprint for constructing their ideal defense made one thing quite apparent this offseason — you better be a heck of an athlete if you want to start in the Dolphins’ secondary. Between Byron Jones, Xavien Howard, Noah Igbinoghene, Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe, Miami offers a group of top-shelf athletes in the secondary; intent on matching up player for player with the league’s high-flying offenses.

The trends of those pegged as starters in the Dolphins secondary reaffirms this to be the case.

But how much of an advantage does that give Miami against some of their critical opponents this season? Daniel Jeremiah shared a quick study of the team speed of skill players in “11 personnel” ahead of the 2020 season — and Miami will certainly be taking note of some of the teams on either end of the spectrum.

Among the fastest teams in the league, Miami faces two of them this season — the Chiefs and the Broncos. Both AFC West opponents will test the Dolphins’ ability to go stride for stride in space, but here’s the good news: the average 40-time of the Dolphins’ nickel defense (in order to match “11 personnel”) is 4.44 seconds — these dudes can fly.

Furthermore, the Dolphins are schedules to face three of the five slowest teams in the NFL as well. As an added bonus, one of those slowest teams is within the division; the Dolphins will get to face them twice this season. Between the Patriots, Rams and Chargers, the Dolphins should have a significant athleticism advantage in coverage. If Miami is able to stay sticky on opposing receivers in these match-ups, the Dolphins may well find themselves in a position to collapse the pocket around the unproven Jarrett Stidham and proven poor passers versus pressure in Jared Goff and Tyrod Taylor.

Any little detail can help tip the scales of an NFL game into one team or another’s favor. For the Dolphins, hopefully the athleticism on the backend can be the secret sauce.