Safety Eric Rowe has checked just about every box that you possibly can in the secondary. When Rowe arrived on campus with the University of Utah as a freshman, he arrived as a 3-star recruit but quickly claimed a starting role in the secondary — playing three years as the Utes’ free safety before transitioning to cornerback for his senior season.
Rowe’s play was promising enough that the Philadelphia Eagles would go on to use a top-50 pick to draft Rowe, hoping he could help bring stability to their cornerback room, only to trade him to New England after one season. While with the Patriots, Rowe was tasked with the prospect of both playing on the perimeter and stepping into the slot to play inside. Durability issues were his primary sticking point in New England, however, and when his contract expired, Rowe chose to come south and sign with the Dolphins ahead of the 2019 season.
Midway through the year, defensive coach Josh Boyer suggested Rowe make another transition — back to safety. From there, Rowe’s play blossomed and he became a reliable fixture throughout the second half of the year, staying sticky on opposing tight ends and shining in coverage.
Long story short, Rowe has literally seen everything there is to see in the secondary now — he’s played outside corner, slot corner, free safety and now strong safety. But his mental dexterity through it all is what has him now built to be a positive contributor as the primary coverage option against tight ends.
Entering into the 2020 offseason, Rowe had clear objectives in mind with his role — continue to get better in his coverage techniques and see his run fits better this season. But that, like everything for Rowe to this point in his career, has been a journey; he’s had to specialize on different areas of emphasis at different times. For the majority of his offseason, his focus didn’t change — he’s still a coverage guy first in this defense.
“It’s tough to train run fits in the offseason. I can’t ask like, four and five guys, ‘hey, you pull, you block down, you do this, you do that.’ So my offseason training was working on my man technique, press – because I know that’s like 90 percent of our defense playing man,” Rowe said.
“I just kept with the same offseason training, just working on my feet, working on my hands, working on my route technique and then I know it’s usually supposed to be OTAs, but now this year it’s training camp, working on a lot of run fits, kind of seeing the run quicker, working with all that.”
With Miami now in camp, the time is now to collect his reps in his new challenge — mastering the box. It’s still very new, especially since his role at Utah didn’t offer him as much preparation for it as you might think.
“Even though I did play (safety) in college, I was mainly a free safety so I was in the post a lot. I didn’t really have to deal with run fits and all that, so when I made that transition, that was probably the most difficult thing, was knowing that I actually have a gap that I need to fit and it’s not like a corner has like the D-gap or the most outside gap. That’s easy,” said Rowe.
“Like there’s some plays I actually have to read o-linemen, watch the pull – that happens fast – and at the same time, focus on my tight end in case it’s a pass play. So that’s probably the most difficult thing for me, was trying to pick up on the run game, try to understand fronts because now I’ve got to understand what front is our d-end in or the d-line in.”
Rowe is used to getting tested — his ability to shine was stunted in New England due to injuries popping up throughout the course of his three seasons there. But Rowe’s time with the Patriots forged his relationship with Brian Flores, who he now plays for once again here in Miami. And if there’s one things Flores knows about his strong safety — he’s going to stay with it and get it right. Whether that’s run fits or anything else thrown his way. It’s all he’s ever done: stick with it.