Byron Jones, CB, Miami Dolphins
We have seen this recipe before: A Bill Belichick disciple becomes a head coach and strikes out on his own, but then tries to mold his own organization in the image of what Belichick would do. But Brian Flores down in Miami has done a great job of assembling players ideal to run a man coverage, pressure defense scheme. Byron Jones, the talented man coverage corner with the versatility to play safety, is ideal for this defense.
Belichick is a firm believer in single-high coverage, and leaving talented cornerbacks on an island with wide receivers and playing matchups in the secondary as much as possible. One of Belichick’s favorite things to do is to take his best coverage corner and put him on the offense’s second wide receiver, and then take his CB2 and put him on the top WR with dedicated safety help. Now with Xavien Howard and Jones, Flores can do the same with his secondary, with the flexibility of having two corners to tailor those matchups based on their skillsets. Howard might match up better with the more traditional X receivers, given his long speed, while Jones has more change-of-direction ability, so he might be a better matchup for Z and even slot type receivers. Either way Flores sees it, he is in position to tailor his coverages to what his talented duo of corners does best.
That will put Jones in position to have a very good 2020 campaign.