Dolphins asking defensive players to do things many teams don’t. Here’s their reaction.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra likes to mention to reporters, occasionally, that “we’re not for everyone” because of the team’s demanding culture, which requires impeccable worth ethic and conditioning.
The same might be said of these Brian Flores-coached Dolphins, but for a different reason. These Dolphins require defensive players not only to learn multiple roles but to sometimes change their roles dramatically week to week. A linebacker can go from playing 25 snaps on the outside one week to 45 inside the next. A defensive back could be a cornerback one week and a safety the next, or — in the case of Jomal Wiltz — play both in the same game.
Vince Biegel said he has been asked to play more than a half dozen positions, including “outside linebacker, inside linebacker, six technique, four technique, psuedo nose tackle” and doesn’t mind at all.
Pittsburgh’s Minkah Fitzpatrick wanted no part of the Dolphins experience — including learning six positions — and recently said that “the thing I like about here is we run what we run and we run it well. We don’t try to do too much. We don’t try to change it up too much week to week.” In other words, unlike the Dolphins.
The Dolphins’ approach of adapting scheme and player roles to a particular opponent — more so than most teams — certainly has worked for the Patriots, where Flores was de facto defensive coordinator last season.
And it has worked at times so far this season in Miami, including linebacker Raekwon McMillan thriving when asked to play on the edge (for the first time in his career) against New England and Eric Rowe excelling after being moved from cornerback to safety.
So do players prefer the approach endorsed by Fitzpatrick, or the one utilized by Flores?
Rowe, who has more experience with Flores than any player on the roster, said from his experience in New England for three years there and a season in Miami, believes most players exposed to the Belichick/Flores approach see the upside in it.
“Generally, people like it,” Rowe said. “You don’t hear people complain. You don’t hear anybody complain about, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got a lot of assignments this week! How am I going to play?’ They just study and get it done. No one really complains about it because we know we’re trying to take away their strengths. And the game is a lot easier when you take away their strengths.
“Whoever we’re playing, we’re trying to take away the strongest thing they have going for them. When you can do that, it’s smooth and easy.”
McMillan admitted that when he was initially told he would be playing on the edge at select times this season, “I wasn’t comfortable. But it has become easier over time.”
The upshot of Flores’ approach, Biegel said, is it can “create confusion” for opposing offenses. “That’s what this defense allows us to do.”
Fitzpatrick, of course, requested a trade primarily because he wanted to focus on playing cornerback or safety instead of being switched among a handful of positions. And this approach to defense clearly isn’t for everyone.
“It definitely takes someone to embrace it,” Rowe said. “We would all just love to run the same thing every week. That would [require] far less thinking. But on the flip side of that, if you run the same thing every week, coaches are smart; they will devise ways to combat it. If you keep running the same thing, there’s a counter to that: Here’s your weakness and we’re going to expose it. But if we change it up, it keeps other teams on their toes. We throw them off their game plan. But it does require more studying and thinking.”
And it’s not just the defensive backs. Veteran defensive lineman John Jenkins said “one week I’m at right end, one week nose tackle, one week left end.”
Is this week-to-week change in roles easy to accept? “Depends on the person,” Jenkins said. “Some guys feel comfortable rushing on one side. And other guys like myself can do it all. In Seattle, Mike Bennett told me don’t let one position define who you are. It’s also allowed me to get on the field more.”
So what qualities do players need to thrive in this system?
“You have got to be flexible, study,” Rowe said. “You’ve got to have smart players. Everybody knows there’s some guys that are not really [high] football IQ but are really gifted. Here you’ve got to have both.”
Linebackers coach Rob Leonard said Flores has a great feel for what nuances to add to the defense each week and that it helps that the assistants think in a “like-minded” way.
“He’s great at seeing that limit of what’s too much, or we can add more stuff here, and great at seeing if we’re executing,” Leonard said.
But how do the Dolphins know before acquiring a player that they will be willing to do this, so that another Fitzpatrick situation doesn’t occur? They assume nearly all will.
“You’ll run across a few guys that don’t want to deal with it — but a lot of these guys, if they’re involved in team sports for this long in their career, these guys are selfless,” defensive coordinator Patrick Graham said. “They want to do what’s best for the team, and if you explain that to them and then you point them in the right direction and then they have success with it, it usually works out for the benefit of the two of us.”
INJURY UPDATE
Receivers Albert Wilson and Allen Hurns practiced fully and will play Sunday against Philadelphia after being limited with injuries earlier in the week.
Cornerbacks Ken Webster, Ken Crawley and Ryan Lewis and safety Steven Parker are questionable for Sunday. Crawley (shoulder) and Parker (groin) were limited all week; Webster (ankle) and Lewis (chest) practiced fully on Friday.
Here’s what Josh Rosen had to say about his situation on Friday.
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 3:30 PM.
