Gase says safety tandem fell short last year
ORLANDO — The grimace on Adam Gase’s face said everything the Miami Dolphins head coach’s words didn’t.
Gase was asked Tuesday at the NFL Annual Meeting about the safety tandem of Reshad Jones and T.J. McDonald, who played together for the final eight games of the 2017 season, and Gase looked as if he’d eaten something bad before begrudgingly saying that the safety pairing in the back-end of Miami’s secondary is a work in progress.
“I don’t think it really turned out as well as we thought [based on] what we saw in training camp,” Gase said, referring to McDonald’s return from his eight-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
McDonald, who has started 61 NFL games in five seasons, contributed 45 tackles, one interception and broke up three passes in the eight games he played for Miami last season.
“T.J. did a great job of being ready to go, and got in there and was physically able to do it. But we didn’t have that chemistry we’re looking for,” Gase said of McDonald and Jones, who was selected to the Pro Bowl for the second time in 2017. “It took those guys a while to get a feel for each other.”
Gase’s discomfort with how Jones and McDonald played together hinted that changes could be coming to that unit.
The Dolphins will explore playing McDonald more in the box, possibly including a move to a linebacker role similar to how the Los Angeles Rams use Mark Barron or the Arizona Cardinals use Deone Bucannon. It’s a role McDonald, who is 6 feet 2 inches, 225 pounds, is familiar with, considering he played significant snaps in the box as a pseudo-linebacker during his final season with the Rams in 2016.
And that was the concern about the pairing of Jones and McDonald. They are both safeties who are at their best when they are closer to the line of scrimmage. The problem is, someone needs to play center field from time to time, serving as the last line of defense for the secondary.
Despite having a reputation as a ball hawk and playmaker, Jones, who has started 96 games for the Dolphins, has struggled in that role since joining the franchise in 2010.
Both Jones and McDonald struggled covering tight ends downfield last season, and Miami’s inability to find a defender who can stick with talents like New England’s Rob Gronkowski, Kansas City’s Travis Kelce and Oakland’s Jared Cook led to major struggles in 2017. At one point late last season defensive coordinator Matt Burke flat out said he didn’t have anyone who excelled in that role.
McDonald, who signed a fouryear, $24 million contract extension the week before he began his suspension last year, has been adamant that the safety pairing can work.
“Just because we do one thing particular well doesn’t [mean it can’t work]. There are free safeties who play in the box,” McDonald said at the end of the 2017 season. “I feel like we can mix up the looks, do a little of both. I like what we’ve got going on back there. … We can both play physical and establish a presence in the middle of the field.”
McDonald will be paid $1.55 million this season in base salary and a $50,000 workout bonus, and $3.64 million of his $5 million base salary in 2019 became fully guaranteed earlier this month. That financial investment should motivate the Dolphins to find a way to make it work.
“It’ll be better,” Gase said. We’ll get them in training camp and be able to continue that growth. I was feeling something good there in training camp [last year]. T.J. was playing really well, and Reshad and him were doing a good job of communicating well with each other. They had a good feel.”
If McDonald and Jones can’t excel playing together it’s possible that Miami will explore using Maurice Smith at free safety. Smith impressed Miami’s coaches during training camp last year, and he was actually going to be elevated into a starting role before his appendix ruptured in December, which landed him on injured reserve for the final month of the season.
“He showed us a lot. There were a lot of good things he did,” Gase said of Smith, who contributed one tackle and one pass breakup in the six games he played in 2017.
Smith contributed 50 tackles, two interceptions, one sack and forced two fumbles in the one season he played at Georgia after transferring from Alabama, where he spent his first three seasons as a backup.
“Like any rookie, he was up and down. The guys that he learned under in college are guys I respect a lot,” Gase said, referring to his coaching mentor Nick Saban and his staff at the University of Alabama. “He knows what we’re looking for and will be able to contribute.”
It is possible that Miami could add another safety in free agency, especially after losing Michael Thomas, who signed a two-year deal with the New York Giants.
Talented starters like Ron Parker, Kenny Vaccaro and Eric Reid remain in a holding pattern in free agency until the Seattle Seahawks move Pro Bowler Earl Thomas, who is on the trading block.
It’s possible that Miami could sign one of those veterans to a oneyear deal. However, it seems more realistic that Miami will add another safety through the draft.
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