The Miami Dolphins’ exit interviews and self evaluation this week have yielded some important changes for the organization. Miami’s most prominent coaching change arrived on Wednesday morning with the announcement that offensive coordinator Chan Gailey was resigning from his position, leaving the Dolphins looking for their third play caller in as many seasons under the watch of Brian Flores.
But we’ve now learned that Miami has another coaching staff change looming — this one on the defensive side of the football. And while it isn’t as major as the change Miami experienced at the end of the 2019 season when defensive coordinator Patrick Graham left for New York, it is still a significant move:
The Miami Dolphins have announced this afternoon that they’ve “mutually parted ways” with defensive line coach Marion Hobby.
We have mutually parted ways with defensive line coach Marion Hobby.
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) January 7, 2021
Hobby came to Miami in 2019 after several years of working with the Clemson Tigers program and a short stop in Jacksonville with the Jaguars from 2017-2018; and his unit up front served as one of the forces within the Dolphins’ defensive unit this season. On a number of Miami’s biggest plays, it was defensive linemen like Christian Wilkins, Raekwon Davis or Zach Sieler who stepped up to help force wins in the trenches and create critical plays for the Dolphins.
Hobby was among the Dolphins coaches to miss time this season due to a flurry of COVID-19 cases among the staff — he was not on the sideline for Week 9 and Week 10 against the Arizona Cardinals and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Miami will now have a second vacancy to fill on their staff; if the team’s willingness to dip into the college pool last season for positional candidates is any indication, the Dolphins are likely to have plenty of interviews awaiting them as they look to fill the void left with Hobby’s departure this winter.