What the 2019 Miami Dolphins have in common with the Big 3 Heat

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra help revolutionize the NBA with his “positionless basketball” when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were in Miami.

Are Dolphins defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and coach Brian Flores about to do the same with football — at least on the defensive side of the ball?

Expect to the Dolphins to have roughly a dozen linebackers and defensive backs in their rotation this fall.

Who plays where — and when? It will depend on the down and distance. Corners will play safety. Safeties will play linebacker. Linebackers will rush the pass and cover tight ends.

About the only back-seven player who has an established, no-doubt-about-it role this fall is cornerback Xavien Howard. He’s not going to line up at defensive end.

The rest are on notice: They better know “about 20 different positions,” as one source told the Miami Herald.

“I see ‘em as Xs,” Graham, Miami’s defensive coordinator, said Thursday. “Sometimes I make the little check marks when I’m drawing it out. I don’t remember the last time I put T or LB. I put little marks. You all will have to figure that one out.”

That won’t come until the games. But training camp has provided a sneak preview.

Thursday’s practice alone illustrated how multiple Graham’s mad-scientist defensive scheme should be. On one passing down, they had eight defensive backs on the field. Another time, they had six in the secondary with three defensive linemen and two linebackers.

“I like the idea of 11 guys understanding the situation, understand we got to defend the grass behind us, we’ll deploy them how we feel is right and we’ll go from there,” Graham said.

When asked about using standard 4-3 and 3-4 defenses, Graham chortled.

“I don’t even know that that is,” he said. “You look out there we’ll be 1-10 if you want us to be. We’ll figure out something. If it works, we’ll do it. ... That’s what we got to do, get 11 guys on the field, 11 guys playing smart, tough, visible football, being disciplined, and we’ll figure it out.”

Still, the Dolphins will need to have a starting lineup, a core that Graham relies on the most. For now, that group seems to be Christian Wilkins, Davon Godchaux, Tank Carradine and Charles Harris on the defensive line; Kiko Alonso, Jerome Baker and either Raekwon McMillan or Sam Eguavoen at linebacker; and Howard, Eric Rowe, Bobby McCain, Minkah Fitzpatrick and T.J. McDonald at safety.

Noticeably missing from that list?

Reshad Jones — the Dolphins’ highest-paid player at $13 million in base salary.

Jones has worked mainly with the backups during the past week, a sign that Flores was serious when he told reporters in the spring, when Jones was a no-show at voluntary practices, that “there are no sacred cows.”

How’s that sitting with Jones, a two-time Pro Bowler who famously refused to re-enter a game last year after being asked to be part of a rotation?

“Reshad has been a professional,” Graham said. “He’s been in here. He’s been working hard. ... He’s going to be around the ball. He’s still playing defense. We’re still going to ask him to do the things I’ve seen him do over his career. He’s been great in terms of just working hard every day and trying to get better. Working diligently in the classroom, so no complaints from me.”

Graham insisted that since there was not a depth chart at this point in the summer, it’s irrelevant who plays with which group.

Whether Jones feels the same is unclear.

What is abundantly clear: He won’t put players on the field who don’t follow instructions, no matter how talented.

“We’re going to be a tough, smart, physical football team that’s going to be disciplined, I know that,” Graham said. “Those are the guy who will be on the field. However that plays out, it plays out. ... you see all this grass right here? We got 11 guys to defense all that grass. You got to be pretty disciplined to defend all that grass.”

This story was originally published August 1, 2019 at 1:45 PM.