The Miami Dolphins’ coaching upheaval of 2020 left several prominent coaches on the team’s roster out in the cold to start the winter — including defensive backs coach Tony Oden. Oden was a part of the Dolphins’ coaching staff for the 2018 and 2019 seasons — once with Adam Gase and then again in year one of the Brian Flores era.
But, as we saw at the end of the season, Miami’s late start to hiring Brian Flores — which was prompted by the Patriots’ run to the Super Bowl in early 2019 — caused Miami to deal with a pretty barren landscape for assistants. And so Oden stayed on board. And while the Dolphins’ secondary, which was pieced together on a weekly basis with undrafted free agents throughout the second half of the season, performed well enough, it wasn’t enough to keep Oden on the staff beyond this season.
The good news for Coach Oden? He’s officially landed on his feet — he’s signing on with the San Francisco 49ers.
#49ers are hiring former Dolphins’ DBs coach Tony Oden to fill the void that Joe Woods left.
Miami’s secondary has finished Top-5 in INTs in three of the previous six seasons — 2013-14, 2017.
They also had 13 INTs in 2019, which is 1 more than SF.
— Akash Anavarathan (@akashanav) February 10, 2020
Oden will step into the role vacated by former 49ers coach Joe Woods — who signed on with the Cleveland Browns as the team’s new defensive coordinator. It may end up being a promising career move for Oden, especially if coveted 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Salah gets one of the head coaching gigs that open in the coming seasons. Miami’s secondary, ironically enough, yielded more interceptions in 2019 than the 49ers, as cited by Akash Anavarathan of Niners Nation — which may go down as one of the oddest Dolphins stats of 2019.
Happy trails and best of luck, Coach Oden! Unless, of course, you’re coaching against the Dolphins.
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