Beefing up defense

Dolphins want to upgrade linebackers to help run defense.

INDIANAPOLIS — Miami Dolphins coach Adam Gase knows where he needs to start when rebuilding a defense that finished 30th against the run last season, allowing 140.4 yards per game.

“I’d like to say up front, but we’ve got a pretty good front,” Gase said. “So we’ve got to make sure we do a good job with our linebackers.”

The Dolphins will hit free agency in search of help at linebacker, specifically middle linebacker, to shore up a leaky run defense. It’s a position they might also pursue early in the draft.

It seems unlikely the Dolphins would pursue a highpriced free agent along the line of New England’s Dont’a Hightower because they’d like to move away from such moves and rely more on draftees.

“Nothing is ever off the table,” Gase said of a big-name free agent signing, “but at the same time we have an idea how we want to build it.”

Ideally, Gase would move middle linebacker Kiko Alonso to the weakside, where he played as a rookie in Buffalo when he recorded 159 tackles. Alonso, at 240 pounds, is a bit on the smallish side as a middle linebacker. Alonso played the last few games of last season with a broken right thumb that required postseason surgery. He also battled hamstring problems.

“We’ve got to get some more guys to help Kiko out,” Gase said. “We’ve got to keep him

healthy.”

It’ll be interesting to see how the Dolphins, under first-year defensive coordinator Matt Burke, the former linebackers coach, opt to fix the run defense.

“Stopping the run can be a couple of things,” said Denver coach Vance Joseph, who served as the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator last season.

“It can be obviously your d-line play. But also it can be your coverage package. You can help your running game by playing different coverages and having different fronts. That problem you can fix a bunch of different ways.”

Stopping the run was the No. 1 problem for the defense.

But problem No. 2, yards allowed, wasn’t far behind.

The Dolphins allowed a franchise-record 6,122 yards last season. The trickle-down effect resulted in problems with time of possession and, consequently, defensive fatigue. Both arose in the Dolphins’ 30-12 wild-card playoff game loss at Pittsburgh.

Gase isn’t putting all of the blame on the linebackers in that regard.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got our safeties healthy, and those guys have got to be huge contributors to what we’re going to do,” he said.

But as the season progressed it became clear the linebackers had to be improved.

“I think that front four is pretty good as far as what we have right now,” Gase said of a crew that includes Pro Bowl selections in tackle Ndamukong Suh and end Cameron Wake, as well as thirdyear tackle Jordan Phillips and fourth-year defensive end Terrence Fede, among others.

“We need some consistency out of Jordan, which I think we’re going to get this year,” Gase said. “I like where our d-ends are at right now. Obviously, Suh, I don’t have to talk about him because he’s probably the best in the business. And if we can get a couple of more d-ends to help out what we already have that would be very helpful for us.”

What remains unclear is exactly how the Dolphins will handle the starting linebackers aside from Alonso. It’s likely they’ll have two new starters, improving on oft-injured Jelani Jenkins, who is eligible to become a free agent, and Donald Butler.

“I think right now the biggest thing for [Jenkins] is he’s looking to get healthy,” Gase said. “He’s still trying to rehab through kind of multiple injuries. We’ll see what happens here when we hit free agency.”

Gase would like to have the linebacker situation resolved as quickly as possible. But he apparently doesn’t feel rushed.

“I don’t think anything has to be in place when you’re done with free agency,” he said. “You try to get as many of the pieces of the puzzle done as possible and then when you hit the draft you add as much as you can, and then after you go back to the drawing board and figure out what you’re going to do after that.

“We’ve still got a lot of time before that first game of the season.”

Gase