Makeover might help
Revamped D-line should be more effective against run
Former Buffalo Bills defensive end Shaq Lawson should help the Dolphins become more adept at slowing opponents’ ground games.
The
Miami
Dolphins defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed last season, so expecting that unit to stop the run on game day was a far-fetched dream that routinely turned into a nightmare.
Because of roster shortcomings created by the team’s push to keep and play youngsters with upside to gauge their ability, Miami’s defense struggled against the run.
And the use of the word “struggle” would be putting the issues mildly considering Miami’s defensive front resembled Swiss cheese against powerful rushing attacks with few exceptions, allowing 2,166 rushing yards and 4.5 season.
Only five teams were worse than the Dolphins defending the run in 2019, a season that saw Miami begin the year with an undrafted rookie (Jonathan Ledbetter) as one of its starting defensive ends, and end it with an undersized 6-foot-3, 246-pound linebacker (Vince Biegel) setting the edge on run-heavy downs.
The Dolphins simply yards per got carry last
With the 2020 NFL season fast approaching, the South Florida Sun Sentinel takes a look at 10 storylines to watch for in a 10-part series ahead of the Miami Dolphins’ first day of training camp, which was set for Tuesday amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
pushed
around too often. To address the struggles, they signed two young, promising veteran free agents this offseason in Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah. The Dolphins released Taco Charlton and traded Charles Harris, two former first-round picks who didn’t pan out.
Miami also selected two youngsters — Jason Strowbridge and Curtis Weaver — in the later rounds of April’s NFL draft, potentially adding some muchneeded depth to a unit that got watered down by injuries in 2019.
The hope is that the four new defensive ends — Lawson, Ogbah, Strowbridge and Weaver — will be better fits in coach Brian Flores’ hybrid defense, which blends 4-3 and 3-4 schemes together and requires versatility from its defensive linemen.
Paired with holdovers such as Davon Godchaux, Christian Wilkins, Avery
Moss and Zach Seiler, plus Raekwon Davis, the defensive tackle Miami selected in the third round of the 2020 draft, the goal is for the Dolphins to do a better job of owning the line of scrimmage in 2020.
Setting a firm edge is critical to all elements of defense because it keeps the integrity of the plays the defensive coordinator called from being compromised.
Proper edge setting should put less pressure on Miami’s linebackers, keeping them free from blocking offensive linemen and allowing them to make plays on ball carriers closer to, or possibly behind, the line of scrimmage.
Trimming the opposition’s run-game production from 4.5 yards per carry to something more respectable in 2020, should add up play after play.
Maybe it produces a second-and-8 instead of a second-and-5 and creates more challenging thirddown plays for opponents, forcing the offense into a passing play.
Stopping the run more effectively is basically the starting point to fielding a respectable defense, which makes Lawson and Ogbah the most important defensive pieces Miami added this offseason — if they can do their jobs well and help contain the LeVeon Bells of the league.
Lawson and Ogbah are both scheme-diverse, having played in both a 4-3 and 3-4 defense, and each has a history of being a forceful edge setter in his first four NFL seasons.
So if they do help the Dolphins become more respectable at the line of scrimmage it will go a long way toward making Miami’s defense more assertive and ultimately more effective.
That means the days of giving up 150 or more rushing yards a game — which happened four times last season — should be in the rearview mirror if Lawson and Ogbah are as good as advertised.
And that should help every unit on Miami’s defense flourish a bit more.