Dolphins defense’s biggest offseason question: How to solve the Josh Allen riddle?
Josh Boyer’s offseason plan needs a name:
Operation Stop Allen.
As in Josh Allen, the Buffalo Bills quarterback who single-handedly kept the Miami Dolphins out of the playoffs in 2020.
Last we saw Boyer, the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator, he was having an uncharacteristically rough afternoon.
With the Dolphins facing a win-and-get-in situation against the Bills in Week 17, Miami surrendered 56 points, 455 yards and 24 first downs in a blowout loss.
But most troubling, Allen continued his mastery against the Dolphins’ defense. In six career games versus Miami, Allen has gone 5-1 (including 2-0 in 2020), thrown 17 touchdowns to just four interceptions and has averaged 8.7 yards per pass.
“I think each one of those games was unique,” Boyer said Tuesday, his first media availability since December. “They’re very well-coached. [Bills offensive coordinator Brian] Daboll is as good as there is. They have talented players.
“But I would say that the focus for us is on us internally.”
That’s smart for May. The defensive install is just beginning.
But there’s no way to look at the Dolphins’ offseason without seeing it through the lens of the team’s issues with Buffalo.
In two games against their longtime rivals last year, the Dolphins allowed 43.5 points and 23.5 first downs per game. They surrendered 8 yards per play — a function of the Bills gaining 10.8 yards per pass attempt — and had just a pair sacks.
Compare that with Miami’s other 14 games: 17.9 points and 20.6 first downs allowed per game, 5.6 yards per play, 6.8 yards per pass and 39 sacks.
It’s no coincidence, then, that there were significant personnel changes. Gone are Kyle Van Noy, Bobby McCain and Shaq Lawson. New Dolphins defenders include Bernardrick McKinney, Jaelan Phillips and Jevon Holland.
”I don’t remember who said it: ‘Each team you lose, you die a little bit,’” Boyer said. “I believe it. You move on. It’s like anything else. You move on and try to get better from it. Things don’t stay the same. You either stay the same or get worse. You try to learn from things that don’t go your way and get better.”
The bookends to the Dolphins’ season were the low points of a Dolphins defense that ranked sixth in the NFL in points allowed per game (21.1). The Patriots and Bills moved the ball at will in Weeks 1 and 2. Ironically, New England and Buffalo are the Dolphins’ first two opponents again this year.
“We need to start fast,” Boyer said. “We started 1-3. We need to get out of the gates.”
▪ Boyer had this response when asked of the team’s vision for McKinney, the versatile linebacker who was acquired in a trade with the Texans: “I think any time you can be multiple, it presents problems for the offense.
“ ... We don’t put parameters on him. We let the players dictate what they can and can’t do.”
▪ Phillips, the first-round pick out of the University of Miami, is officially listed as a linebacker, but Boyer downplayed that designation:
“I don’t know what you should read into it. We look at players at defensive players. The more they can do the more they’ll help us. Call him an end, call him a linebacker, call him a DB if you want. We’ll ask him to learn concepts. We’ll try to utilize his abilities.”
▪ A shared trait of Phillips and Hovland?
“They’re both fiercely competitive,” Boyer said. “They both love football. They’re both students of the game and they’re both driven.”
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 12:58 PM.
