The Dolphins are the league’s worst pass-rushing team. The problem has an easy fix.
A talking point that never dies at Dolphins camp, regardless of who’s coaching the team, goes as follows:
Sacks as a stat are not as important as how good of a job the defense does at affecting the quarterback.
Patrick Graham, Miami’s fifth defensive coordinator in as many seasons, used it again Tuesday when challenged about his unit, which is last in the league in sacks (with 18) by five.
“I’m not a big stat guy, in terms of that,” Graham said. “In terms of sacks, you look at how we’re affecting the quarterback. There’s different ways to do that, whether you drop eight or rush six. Pressures, hurries, however it may be or having people in coverage. Whether we need more sacks or less sacks, I don’t know. I’d prefer more wins.”
Problem is, the Dolphins consistently have failed to get neither this year — pressure on the quarterback nor wins.
The traditional stats and the advanced stats tell the same story: The Dolphins have been historically bad at generating pressure in 2019.
They are on pace to demolish the franchise record for fewest sacks in a 16-game season (24, 1988).
They are last in the league in hurry percentage (6.8) and pressure percentage (17.5) — and yes, those are two totally different stats.
But there’s no better fact point to illustrate just how little the Dolphins have done in the pass-rush game than this:
They have 18 sacks in 14 games. Ohio State defensive end — and Heisman Trophy finalist — Chase Young has 16 1/2 by himself. And he has done that in only 11 games.
So here’s an easy fix for the Dolphins: Do whatever is necessary to draft Young in April.
He’s widely expected to go second behind Joe Burrow (assuming the Bengals end up with the first pick).
And the Dolphins, with two games left, are in a three-way tie for the league’s second-worst record.
They’re currently projected to pick third based on the strength-of-schedule tiebreaker, but the two teams that they’re tied with, the Giants and Redskins, play each other Sunday.
The best case (albeit highly unlikely scenario) is for those teams to tie. But short of that, the Dolphins should root for a Giants victory, and hope to hold onto their very slight edge in strength of schedule over Washington.
If that happens — and the Dolphins lose out — they would pick second, and would almost certainly end up with either Burrow or Young.
There have been some who worried that Young isn’t a scheme fit, but Dolphins coaches preach tailoring their schemes to the talents of their players. They would find a way to make it work.
And doing so would make Graham’s weekly news conferences more pleasant than they have been this season. He seemed to lose patience Tuesday with repeated questions about his defense’s inability to get to the quarterback.
“Obviously, I could coach it better,” Graham said. “That’s where I’ll start and end it. Obviously, I’ve got to do a better job coaching.”
How would he evaluate the job that he has done in his first season as a coordinator?
“Obviously, we don’t have enough wins right now, so not good enough.”
In fairness, he doesn’t have much to work with, even if Graham would never admit that publicly.
He has benched former first-round defensive linemen in each of the past two weeks — Taco Charlton against the Jets and Charles Harris against the Giants.
And when asked to name players who can disengage from an offensive tackle and get pressure on the quarterback, Graham started his answer by naming a guy who has been on the field for 72 snaps in his entire pro career.
“We’ve got several guys, starting with [Andrew] Van Ginkel, [Vince] Biegel, Charles, Taco, all of these guys have shown the ability to do it,” he said. “I feel like we’ve got guys who can make plays against an offensive tackle. As long as we play with our hands and we play with good pad level, you’ve got a chance against any of these guys. As long as we do that, we’ve got a chance against any of these guys.”
So why haven’t we seen more of it?
“I don’t know how you want me to answer that,” Graham responded. “I’ve got to do a better job. I think I’ve made that clear. I’ve got to do a better job. We’ve got to be more consistent with our pad level and more consistent using our hands and so that starts with me.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 12:18 PM.
