» Miami’s defensive line not meeting its expectations,
Unit has struggled to make a big impact this season.
DAVIE — The Dolphins’ defensive line has been fine. Not great, not bad, but fine.
Miami, however, thought it was buying a lot more than fine when it shelled out $41.2 million on this unit, making it the second-most-expensive defensive line in the NFL. The best thing to be said of this group through nine games is that Ndamukong Suh, who’s making more money than anyone on the roster other than Ryan Tannehill, has been his usual elite self.
Collectively, this group is in the bottom six in the league in sacks heading into today’s home game against Tampa Bay. Six of Miami’s 16 sacks came in the Week 5 win against the Titans, who were quarterbacked by Matt Cassel at the time. A line that boasts Suh, Cameron Wake, Andre Branch, William Hayes and first-round pick Charles Harris got nothing in recent games against Baltimore and Carolina.
That’s not scaring anybody, and the fearlessness is evident in opposing quarterbacks. Cam Newton destroyed the Dolphins in every possible way Monday, including his best game throwing the ball in more than a month.
Miami has allowed the second-highest opponent passer rating in the league, boosted by Philip Rivers, Josh McCown (twice), Drew Brees, Joe Flacco and Newton going for 100plus. The worst game any quarterback’s had against the Dolphins was when Cassel managed an 85.5, only a shade worse than Jay Cutler’s number for the season.
Those stats only tell part of the story, but it’s enough to outrage Wake.
“I don’t feel like we’ve gotten enough pressure on the quarterback,” he said, starting a list of shortfalls by the defensive line. “I feel like we probably should have more tackles for loss. I don’t think you would ask anybody on that line if that’s been good enough from us (and get a yes). With the kind of guys we have in there, our expectations are probably higher than most, so we still have some work to do.
“My expectations are heavy. They’re big, really big . ... When you look at the names of the guys we have, I couldn’t see anybody expecting anything less.”
The Jaguars are the only team outspending Miami on the line, doing so by $3.6 million, and while some might question that lopsided allocation — it’s about 25 percent of the salary cap for each team, according to Spotrac’s database — at least Jacksonville is getting its money’s worth with a league-best 35 sacks.
The Steelers, who have 34 sacks and average one every 10.4 dropbacks, are 22nd in defensive line spending at $15.7 million. Suh alone carries a larger cap hit at $19.1 million this year (next season he’s scheduled to jump to $26.1 million). Pittsburgh’s line accounts for less than 10 percent of its total payroll, and all but one of its linemen has a cap number of around $4 million or less.
Wake, in the first season of a two-year, $16.2 million extension, leads the team with six sacks but hasn’t had one since Oct. 22. His sack total ranks No. 18 in the NFL, and none of his teammates are in the top 50.
Branch, who signed a threeyear, $24 million contract in the offseason, has been on the field for 314 snaps (not all pass plays, of course) and has three sacks.
Harris, the No. 22 overall pick, has one sack and has played a little more than half the defensive snaps this season. That number was down to 36.4 percent for the Carolina game.
The difficult task in sizing up a defense is sorting out who’s responsible for what. Are the Dolphins allowing the second-highest completion percentage in the league because they aren’t getting pressure or because the coverage is spotty? As always, the answer is both.
“It’s tough to point out one group because on defense, it takes that whole unit,” coach Adam Gase said. “You have to do a good job of taking that first progression away in the coverage, because it’s hard when the ball comes out as fast as it does usually on us. We’ve got to make that quarterback get to the second progression for those guys to really have a legitimate opportunity to affect the quarterback.
“It’s hard to just win when the ball comes out that fast. There’s only so much (the defensive line) can control.”
Miami is also near the bottom of the NFL in interceptions with just three in nine games. While the defensive backs have dropped some, they’d benefit from the defensive line forcing quarterbacks into more panicky throws.
Here’s a breakdown of the 300 dropbacks against the Dolphins this year:
■ 65 percent of them were completed passes, averaging 10.4 yards.
■ 29.7 percent were incomplete.
■ 5.3 percent were sacks, meaning one out of every 18.8. For contrast, league-leading Jacksonville gets one every 9.3 dropbacks, roughly twice as frequently.
■ 1 percent were intercepted. Seven teams are averaging more than one interception per game.
That’s not championship-level defense, nor is it acceptable for a defensive line in which Miami has invested tremendous resources.
“If I knew why the roof was leaking, I would have fixed it,” Wake said when asked why his crew has been a disappointment. “It could be a lot of different things, but to me, there’s only one solution to fix the unknown problems, and that’s harder work, more attention to detail and again, playing together.
“That’s what we’ve been working on this past week. That’s something that, obviously, in the past couple of weeks we haven’t done as well as we should have.”