One reason why Miami’s young safety tandem is thriving. And Dolphins personnel notes
A six-pack of Miami Dolphins notes as we close in on Dolphins-Ravens on Thursday night:
▪ One of the fun story lines in this miserable season is watching the growth of young safety tandem Jevon Holland and Brandon Jones.
“We have such a good relationship off the field; I think that definitely correlates with how we play on the field,” Jones said.
“We have a lot of trust for each other. I think it’s really cool to see once we get on the field, there are a lot of instances where we don’t even communicate and we’re still on the same page. That’s very rare and just shows you what type of relationship that we have. Communication has always been on point with us. It’s been really fun just to be out there with him.”
Pro Football Focus ranks Holland 22 and Jones 52nd among 91 qualifying safeties.
Jones has emerged as one of the better blitzing safeties in the league; PFF rates him 18th among all safeties as a pass rusher.
“I was actually thinking about this a couple of days ago because I really didn’t blitz too much at Texas,” Jones said this week. “Most of my blitzes came my senior year when I was playing kind of more of a Star role. It’s cool. I love it. It really goes with my play style of playing with a high motor, always going 100 percent. It definitely benefits me.
“I need to get with some of the D-linemen and work on my swim move, spin and whatever I can to help free me up a little bit more. I’m very grateful for the opportunity the coaches have given me to be able to blitz and make plays and cause havoc.”
Blitzing Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is tricky because he’s the NFL’s most dangerous quarterback as a runner.
“The biggest thing is just going to be to keep contain,” Jones said. “A guy like that, he’s a playmaker obviously with his feet. It’s going to be hard. He’s fast. He puts people on skates 24/7. Hopefully I’m not in that position where he puts me on skates and I’m on ESPN Top 10 for getting shook.”
▪ Holland and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said their fathers are their toughest critics.
Holland’s father John was a defensive back in both the NFL (San Francisco 1992-93) and CFL (1990, 1993-97) and takes detailed notes on Holland’s performance every game, which is shared during postgame conversations.
“He can’t wait until I call him,” Jevon said last week, before securing his first NFL interception against Houston. “My dad is crazy. He’s one of the best football minds I’ve met in my life.”
Holland cracked that he hated when DirecTV developed a rewind mechanism on the remote control, because his father would constantly rewind after plays to make teaching points to Jevon when he was young.
“I thank him for that,” Holland said. “I didn’t know he was preparing me” for an NFL career.
Holland now has key communication responsibilities with this Dolphins defense.
Playing so much the past month has “done a lot; given you a real time look, seeing the formations and going on the field and seeing them in live time,” he said.
Defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander said Holland has an infectious personality and teammates gravitate to him, even though he’s only a rookie.
“You have to earn their respect and speak to them as an equal,” Holland said.
▪ Dolphins coach Brian Flores wants to see Tagovailoa throw before the game before making a decision on a starter. Tagovailoa must show that he’s able to throw downfield — with his finger injury — to persuade Flores to start him over Jacoby Brissett. If he doesn’t, Brissett will start again. Tagovailoa has remained limited this week.
Even though the Dolphins don’t throw deep a lot, Flores feels strongly about his quarterback being able to do that physically. Tagovailoa has thrown only 14 passes this season that traveled at least 20 yards in the air; he completed six.
UPDATE: Brissett is starting.
Brissett and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson both attended South Florida high schools “but we’ve never hung out with each other,” Brissett said. “We’ve met each other in passing a couple of times. I obviously played against him in college. We have a lot of mutual friends.”
▪ The last time the Dolphins and Ravens met was Baltimore’s 59-10 shellacking of Miami to open the 2019 season. The Dolphins watched tape of that game this week, Byron Jones said.
“I didn’t even know some of the guys I was lined up with [that game],” Dolphins linebacker Jerome Baker said this week. “I didn’t know their names. But this team is a lot different. We’re better coached. We have better players.”
▪ Quick stuff: Robert Hunt said there were no changes to the starting offensive line this week. It’s a big night for this group, particularly for Liam Eichenberg, who could be replaced by Greg Little if he doesn’t improve...
Though Myles Gaskin didn’t have many open creases to run against Houston, one thing he said he must do better is break more “shoestring tackles.”...
Cornerback Marlon Humphrey, on Dolphins rookie receiver and fellow former Alabama player Jaylen Waddle: “He’s really quick. It was really cool watching him score touchdowns for the Tide, but hopefully, not so many Thursday. But he’s really quick, really fast. I think he’ll be a top guy pretty quickly in this league.”
▪ Thursday’s game will be the Dolphins’ final appearance on Fox’s Thursday Night Football package. The Thursday night games move exclusively to Amazon Prime next season.
A prime time game “is a big deal,” Mike Gesicki said. “It’s exciting. Everyone will be watching.”
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman call Thursday’s game for Fox, with a simulcast on NFL Network.
NBC’s Al Michaels is considered a strong possibility to call Thursday night games for Amazon next season.
Of the Dolphins’ eight remaining games, two are on national TV — Thursday’s game and the Dec. 27 Monday Night Football game at New Orleans.
ESPN said it hasn’t been determined if Peyton and Eli Manning will do an alternative cablecast of that game. The Mannings are scheduled to work five more games this season.
ESPN can begin flexing out of Monday Night games in 2023.
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 10:13 AM.
