How Miami Dolphins’ highest-paid cornerback duo fared against elite receivers
South Florida sports has had plenty of dynamic duos - from the Heat’s Dwyane Wade/Shaquille O’Neal to Wade/LeBron James to the Dolphins’ Jason Taylor/Zach Thomas and Larry Csonka/Mercury Morris, among others.
Whether Dolphins cornerbacks Xavien Howard and Byron Jones - the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback pairing - can join that group should be one of the interesting subplots of this Dolphins season that begins on Sunday in New England.
For months, Jones has relished the idea of playing across “from another guy who’s a top-tier corner. That’s going to be a cool little duo for us.”
Because Howard is coming off serious knee surgery in December, I’m expecting him to be on the field for only some of the team’s defensive snaps on Sunday - a decent amount of snaps but not all of them. The Dolphins want to be cautious with him after his history of knee problems.
Don’t be surprised to see Noah Igbinoghene and potentially Nik Needham get playing time on the boundary.
Over the past two years, both Howard and Jones rank highly on analytics web-sites for overall play, even with Howard generally struggling in five games last season before being shut down with a knee injury and even though Jones has no interceptions over the past two seasons for Dallas since moving from safety to cornerback two years ago.
But how have they played against the league’s very best receivers?
For purposes of this study, we evaluated how Jones and Howard each played over the past two seasons against receivers or tight ends that have A) been invited to a Pro Bowl and/or B) Had a 1000-yard receiving season over the past two seasons.
We used Pro Football Focus metrics specifically examining not when the Dolphins or Cowboys played teams with one of those receivers, but when Howard and Jones were specifically matched up against one of those receivers.
Here’s what we found:
▪ Howard, when matched up head-to-head with those receivers over the past two seasons, allowed 22 completions in 37 attempts for 285 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions, equal to a 97.2 passer rating in his coverage area. That’s very good considering the quality of the competition.
▪ Howard’s touchdowns relinquished came against Amari Cooper (two), DeAndre Hopkins (one) and Devante Adams (one). The interceptions came against JuJu Smith-Schuster and T.Y. Hilton.
▪ Among the elite players he covered, Howard did his best work against Antonio Brown (no completions, one attempt), Hilton (0 for 2), Smith-Schuster (0-2, 1 interception) and A.J. Green (2-4, 39 yards). He struggled against Cooper (6-9, 78 yards), with most of the damage done last year in Dallas, not during the 2018 Raiders-Dolphins game when Cooper played for Oakland.
▪ Jones fared worse than Howard against elite receivers but not terribly considering the competition, allowing 27 of 42 passes thrown against him to be caught for 466 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a 117.8 passer rating.
▪ The two TDs allowed by Jones came against Philadelphia’s Alshon Jeffery and Chicago’s Allen Robinson.
▪ Jones played very well in two games against New Orleans’ Michael Thomas, limiting him to two catches in four targets for 21 yards. In direct targets over two games against Eagles tight end Zach Ertz, he allowed one catch for 12 yards.
In three matchups with Jeffery, he allowed three completions but for only 29 yards. He held Odell Beckham without a catch (just one target) in an 2018 Giants-Cowboys meeting. He allowed Julio Jones to one catch in three targets, for 19 yards, in a 2018 Cowboys-Falcons matchup.
▪ So who did Jones struggle against? DeAndre Hopkins, allowing 4 of 5 targets to be caught for 73 yards; Mike Evans (4 for 5 for 72) and Brandon Cooks (4 for 6 for 64 in two games).
Howard also struggled against Hopkins (3 for 4, 23 yards and a TD). The good news is Hopkins is now out of the AFC, having been traded from Houston to Arizona, which hosts the Dolphins this coming season.
The advantage of having two high-end cornerbacks is obvious: Unless teams target only Miami’s safeties, linebackers and nickel corners (which isn’t realistic), teams can’t avoid throwing against a Pro Bowl corner because Miami has two of them.
“The most important part is just really having no weak links, and that’s what we’re trying to create in our defensive secondary and really the entire team, is to build a team where there are no weaknesses, where we can just guard up,” Jones said.
“We can create matchups that are difficult for receivers and quarterbacks. We’ve seen throughout the league, receivers are getting better and better. Quarterbacks are getting better and better. Teams don’t have just one good receiver. They have good tight ends, good running backs, so we just want to be able to match up to some of the best assets and just disrupt that as much as we can.”
One key will be getting at least competent nickel corner play from Igbinoghene, Needham or Jamal Perry.
Jones, who made the Pro Bowl in 2018, has gained an added appreciation for Howard since Howard’s return to the field less than two weeks ago, after December knee surgery and 2 1/2 week stay on the COVID-19 list.
“Just seeing him on day one of practice how he attacks the ball was special to me,” Jones said. “Seeing his feet on line of scrimmage, how he stays square. Wow! We’re learning from each other.”
The Dolphins’ 2020 schedule features several receivers who have been to Pro Bowls (Hopkins, Kansas City’s Tyreek Hill, Cincinnati’s Green) and/or receivers who had 1000 yard seasons over one or both of the past two seasons: Buffalo’s John Brown and Stefon Diggs (acquired from Minnesota); New England’s Julian Edelman, the Chargers’ Keenan Allen, Seattle’s Tyler Lockett, Denver’s Courtland Sutton, Houston’s Brandin Cooks and Jacksonville’s DJ Chark, plus tight ends Travis Kelce of the Chiefs, George Kittle of the 49ers and Darren Waller of the Raiders.
So Jones (signed to a five-year, $82.5 million deal in March) and Howard (who got a five-year, $72 million extension 16 months ago) need to be at their best.
Jones, incidentally, loves the Dolphins’ style of defense.
“That’s one of the things that really made me fall in love with the game all over again; one, changing from safety to corner, but then just having someone in front of me every play,” Jones said. “I love that.
“Even if the ball’s not thrown to my side, I’m cool with that. Being a long, strong corner – I can move pretty well, I can change directions pretty well – I think that’s going to bode well if we’re playing a lot of man.”
Even with two of the NFL’s highest-paid cornerbacks, Pro Football Focus rates the Dolphins’ defensive backfield 15th in the league, which is middle of the pack. The web site likes the cornerbacks but offers this explanation:
“Miami has invested heavily at cornerback, and the unit looks like one of the most well-rounded groups in the league. The Dolphins signed Byron Jones — the top free-agent option — this offseason, and he has the size, movement skills and production to play the No. 1 role in their man-heavy scheme. He produced an 83.3 coverage grade over the past two years, the ninth-best mark in the league, and he’s broken up 19.3 percent of his targets — good for sixth-best.
“He’ll pair with Xavien Howard, whose play tends to fluctuate between All-Pro level and low-end starter; he has a 69.9 coverage grade since 2017, good for 59th among corners. Howard has Richard Sherman-like games in which his size and ball skills look elite, but he also has posted coverage grades under 60.0 in 14 of his past 33 games.
“Miami used its third first-round pick on Noah Igbinoghene, an athletic corner with man coverage skills that fit in the slot. Igbinoghene has work to do to polish his game, as his 70.2 coverage grade last season doesn’t scream “first-rounder,” but he can mirror shifty receivers and fits well with what Miami wants to do defensively.”
Was it worth committing more than $168 million to cornerbacks over multiyear contracts?
It’s too soon to judge Sunday, with Howard just now rounding into form off his knee surgery. But we’ll know soon enough.
We’ve asked three CBS analysts to assess the Dolphins, and here’s that three-part series:
Here’s Part 1 with Tony Romo on Tuesday
Here’s Part 2 with Phil Simms on Thursday.
Here’s Friday’s Part 3 with Rich Gannon.
This story was originally published September 12, 2020 at 10:41 AM.
