A look at Dolphins’ new outside linebacker room. And notable remarks from Fangio, Holland
In the wake of losing their top three edge rushers to season-ending injuries, the Dolphins have assembled an outside linebacker room with a combined 285.5 career sacks. They are hoping that number grows a bit during Saturday night’s 8 p.m. playoff game in Kansas City (NBC 6, Peacock).
With Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips and Andrew Van Ginkel out for the remainder of this season, that new-look outside linebacker room now includes Melvin Ingram (58.5 sacks), Emmanuel Ogbah (42.5) and new additions Justin Houston (112), Bruce Irvin (56.5) and practice squad player Malik Reed (16).
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said whether he gives snaps to four of them “depends on the flow of the game, how short a time span” there is between Chiefs possessions.
He said that Houston and Irvin, signed this week, “have been good players for a long time in different places at different levels.”
Fangio wasn’t involved in the decision to sign Houston and Irvin. When general manager Chris Grier told Fangio they were being signed, “I said good. We got to have somebody.”
Outside linebackers coach Ryan Slowik wrote “243” on the team’s whiteboard on Wednesday, because that’s the number of combined sacks by the four edge rushers signed since mid-December – Ingram, Houston, Irvin and Reed.
Reed, 26, and Ogbah, 30, are the youngest of the group. Ingram and Houston are 34 and Irvin is 36.
“It’s a special moment to have this many good rushers on the same team at one time,” Irvin said after participating in Wednesday’s walk-through practice, a day after signing with Miami. “There’s a lot of knowledge in the room. Hopefully we can be together for more than one week.
“I told J-Houston ‘we’re going to have the oldest outside linebacker room in the league. A lot of knowledge. Lot of experience. Lot of sacks. We know one thing. We know how to get to the quarterback. The game has been good to me. You will never be able to replace that feeling of getting a sack.”
Houston and Irvin were on the same flight from Atlanta when they flew in for their Dolphins workout this week.
Irvin had a sack in two games for Detroit this season, playing most recently Dec. 30 against Dallas before being released.
Houston, who will speak with reporters on Thursday, had half a sack and nine tackles in seven games (all starts) for Carolina this season (most recently Oct. 9), before asking for his release to join a contender.
Irvin said there’s no rust for him because “I was just playing. It’s not like I was at home for a month or two. I’m definitely ready to play.”
What does he offer? “I’m a dawg,” Irvin said. “The league is different now from when I came in. I had older guys who showed me the way. I am going to show you. I might be 36. But I don’t move like it. Can’t wait to show you all and have you all tell me, ‘You were right.’”
Irvin, who said he has two sacks against Patrick Mahomes in his career, said the defensive system that he played in during six seasons in Seattle has “a lot of cross-over” to Fangio’s system. “When we started going over the plays, I felt it was the same playbook. That’s going to help a lot, being a short week.”
MORE FROM FANGIO
▪ Fangio said the status of safeties Jevon Holland (knees) and DeShon Elliott (calf) for Saturday is “up in the air. They both want to play and are trying to do everything they can from a treatment standpoint. DeShon showed his toughness and want-to by playing in that game the other night” after sustaining a calf injury in warm-ups before the Bills game.
No. 3 safety Brandon Jones “has done a good job,” Fangio said. “The season has worked out well for him. Playing time has come in intermittent pieces because he had no training camp. I think he’s done well.”
▪ On his injury-ravaged unit: “It’s a lot all at once. And outside linebacker and safety in particular. This is no ‘woe is me’ in this business. As they say in the maternity ward, don’t tell me about the pain, just show me the baby.”
▪ Fangio ruled out moving Christian Wilkins outside to compensate for injuries at outside linebacker: “Christian has had a helluva season inside. We don’t want to weaken ourselves there.”
▪ Channing Tindall isn’t an option at outside linebacker: “We’re keeping him focused at inside linebacker.”
▪ Fangio generally liked how his defense played against Buffalo, which scored 14 points on offense. But against Kansas City, “we would like to not let them drive as long as Buffalo did. They’re very capable of that. If we hold them to 14, that would be good.”
▪ On Trent Sherfield’s touchdown catch off a deflection in the Buffalo game: “That’s a little bit of buzzard’s luck. Eli [Apple] could have kept competing. Once the ball is tipped, there is no pass interference. It happens. They had linemen way down the field. Unfortunately officials didn’t catch it.”
HOLLAND UPDATE
Safety Jevon Holland said he’s still dealing with pain and mobility issues stemming from sprained MCLs in both knees, injuries sustained on the same play in the Nov. 24 win at the Jets.
After missing four games, Holland played 55 snaps against Baltimore but then played only 27 defensive snaps against Buffalo before taking himself out of the game.
Holland said “I’m trying to play” Saturday. “It’s a playoff game.”
The problem is not only the “pain,” but how the injuries have affected his movement.
Holland said the knees “started firing up again” late last week.
Holland said he took himself out of the Bills game because “I couldn’t move, move how it was before. And I felt like I was hindering the team by being out there. So I told Brandon, ‘Hey you’re up.’ ... I just didn’t feel like I could help the team like I wanted to in the position I was in, physically.”
Does he push it more now because it’s a playoff game?
“If I push it even more, it might be a serious injury. At some point, I’ll have to look in the mirror. This is a serious injury regardless, through and through, so I have to take care of my body. I’m trying to play like it’s a playoff game. But yeah, it’s a difficult situation to be in.”
Holland bemoaned all of the injuries on defense. “We’re missing a lot of important guys,” he said. “This would be something really special if we were all healthy.”
Miami Herald sports writer Daniel Oyefusi contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 10, 2024 at 3:42 PM.
