How a good Dolphins secondary devolved into a patchwork quilt that struggles to cover | Opinion
On the eve of training camp’s first practice the Miami Dolphins had on their roster the makings of very good secondary.
It doesn’t feel like that now. And it’s hard to believe that could ever have been the case for the 2019 Dolphins. But it’s true. There’s no denying it.
If, and it is admittedly it’s a big if, the Dolphins had dispassionately studied their roster and the history of the players on that roster, and if bad luck, and coaching stubbornness hadn’t gotten in the way, the Dolphins secondary would have been just fine.
That secondary on the eve of training camp? Ladies and gentlemen ...
Starting at cornerback ... Xavien Howard.
Starting at cornerback ... Eric Rowe.
Starting at nickel cornerback ... Bobby McCain
Starting at strong safety ... Reshad Jones.
Starting at free safety ... Minkah Fitzpatrick.
The 2019 Miami Dolphins starting secondary.
I don’t see this as a poor secondary. It’s a secondary with two past Pro Bowl players in Jones and Howard. It’s a secondary with a current Pro Bowl player in Fitzpatrick. It’s a secondary with a valued and accomplished nickel corner in McCain.
So maybe this isn’t the stuff of championships. But this is a representative secondary.
Many teams can win with that secondary.
The problem is that secondary was decimated once training camp began. Pieces that belonged one place were unplugged and reinserted elsewhere. Pieces that eventually found success elsewhere were never properly integrated here. Pieces that had been good previously never got fully invested in this tanking season and were sidelined by injuries.
And so we got today’s mess on our hands. We’ve got a secondary that is tied for 30th in the NFL, yielding 8.1 yards per pass. We have a secondary that is 29th in the NFL, yielding opposing quarterbacks a 102.4 passer rating. We have a secondary that is 31st in the NFL, having yielded 33 TD passes.
In short, we have problems.
And right now the battered Dolphins fan is thinking, why is this a thing?
And this report answers ... because some of the things that happened with this secondary in 2019 threaten to repeat in the future. And the future, you’ll recall, is when battered Dolphins fans are expecting they’ll win Super Bowls.
So let’s examine:
Start with the injuries: Nothing anyone could do about that, right? They happen.
And that is generally true. But sometimes underlying reasons for injuries beg scrutiny.
Because three of the players in that pretty good secondary are on injured reserve this year. So that secondary has fallen apart physically.
Jones never really got rolling in 2019. He cracked a rib, and then injured an ankle and was done playing after only four games. It happens. The problem is it happens more and more as players age.
And Reshad Jones, the highest-paid player on the team in 2019, is 31 years old and will be 32 in February. So are the Dolphins going to bring him back after an injury shortened season this year bet on full healthy and production next year?
Then we have Bobby McCain, who was playing out of position. This troubles because it speaks to a coaching problem.
The Dolphins coaching staff, you see, looked at the roster and realized they needed a good communicator in the back end to keep receivers from blowing the top off the defense as they had done so often in 2018 and ‘17.
There were simply too many busts on the back end and so finding no safety with the communication skills and leadership and intelligence they could identify for the job, the coaching staff picked a nickel cornerback to do the work.
Now understand, McCain in June 2018 was signed by an administration that included general manager Chris Grier to a four-year, $27 million deal that rewarded McCain for good work at his nickel position and made him one of the highest paid nickel corners in the league.
And within a year, an administration headed by general manager Chris Grier (same person) moved McCain to free safety.
And why do I tell you McCain is out of position? Because while his communication is indeed excellent, McCain is not a great open field tackler, which is a requirement for free safeties.
And McCain is generally undersized as a free safety. And do you know what happens to undersized free safeties? They get injured. And it’s often a neck or shoulder injuries.
McCain’s shoulder was messed up by the second week of the season. And he plugged along and toughed it out. But by November no amount of toughness could save the season for McCain and he went on injured reserve and required shoulder surgery.
Word to the wise: Bobby McCain is not a free safety, y’all.
He’s a nickel cornerback.
But what are the chances the stubbornness of a coaching staff that played a lot of Cover Zero against Baltimore (remember that?) and called an eight-man blitz on third-and-20 just before halftime against Pittsburgh, and then said with a straight face it was the correct call, despite the touchdown evidence to the contrary, will admit they made a mistake?
What are the chances this coaching staff moves McCain back to the spot he’s more suited to play?
I have my doubts.
And this only adds to those doubts: Fitzpatrick playing at strong safety.
I’m shaking my head because the Dolphins defensive staff — and head coach Brian Flores, I presume — looked at nickel corner McCain and saw a free safety and nickel corner Fitzpatrick and saw a strong safety.
And both views were wrong.
So Fitzpatrick freaks out about playing strong safety while weighing a-buck-98 and decides to gain weight. Then the staff tells him he’s not always going to at strong safety and he’s not always going to be in the lineup and he’s not always going to play a ton. And the guy freaks out.
And wants out.
And, amazingly, gets his wish.
One year after being the No. 11 overall pick of the 2018 draft.
Now, I’m not going to belabor this because I’ve wrote it when it happened, but everybody messed up here.
Fitzpatrick didn’t exactly show a lot of grit in making the best of what he obviously believed was a bad situation. And the Dolphins coaching staff didn’t figure it out by doing something so easy as putting Fitzpatrick at either nickel or free safety and letting him just go make plays.
Yeah, everyone talked. And there were lots of meetings. And lots of coaxing. And cajoling. And everybody respected each other.
But the one thing that needed to happen did not.
1. General manager Grier, who told owner Stephen Ross in April of 2018 he was picking Fitzpatrick no matter what — even if it cost him his job, because Ross wanted to trade down — showed no such firmness with Flores.
Because this is the conversation Grier should have had with Flores but apparently did not: “Brian, I love you, I hired you, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you succeed for years and years, but Minkah Fitzpatrick plays one position if that’s what he wants. And he’s on the field every play. He’s the 11th overall pick from last year and he has to be on the field. We can revisit this after the season, but back off with the versatility and game-plan change stuff because you’re outsmarting yourself. This guy plays.’’
Grier could have that conversation with Flores because, well, he hired Flores. And he’s the head coach’s boss.
The end.
But no.
And so given a coach that would not budge and a player who would not budge, Grier found the need to be the one who budged. And he traded Fitzpatrick to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
And Fitzpatrick is a Pro Bowl player this year and already beloved by an organization and a head coach in Pittsburgh that has accomplished much more than the organization and head coach left behind in Miami.
And why is this episode important to the Dolphins future?
Because it is a reminder that conviction from a coaching staff is good. But stubbornness from a coaching staff is bad.
It’s important to not let one leak into the other.
Obviously, now injuries on the back end forced the coaching staff to move Rowe from cornerback to safety. And that has worked well enough.
And the injury to Howard’s left knee ended his season in late October and Thursday Flores confirmed the cornerback had surgery days ago. It is Howard’s third knee surgery in four seasons. The only season Howard has started and finished came in 2017 so this bears monitoring next year...
...When the Dolphins try once again to put on the field a secondary as good as the one they seemed to have before training began this season.
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 1:16 AM.
