An Improved Pass Rush Is Crucial To the Dolphins Maximizing Their Scheme
Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Vic Fangio watches the defense during the scrimmage at Hard Rock Stadium, Saturday, August 5, 2023 in Miami Gardens.
The Miami Dolphins made a splashy move during last season, trading a first-round pick to acquire edge rusher Bradley Chubb from the Denver Broncos. So far, the move hasn’t paid off. The lack of quality pass rush, not just from Chubb, is a major concern for the Dolphins moving forward, and something the team needs to improve on to maximize what the secondary can do under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.
Since he joined the Dolphins, Chubb has a pass-rush win rate of just 7%, via PFF. In their metric, he is the 51st-ranked edge defender among 59 players. Chubb faced Los Angeles Chargers left tackle Rashawn Slater in 24 snaps and didn’t generate pressure even once. In total, he didn’t win one play on 41 pass-rush snaps in the game. He simply hasn’t justified the trade investment, much less the five-year, $ 110 million extension Miami awarded him.
Outside of Chubb, there isn’t that much help either, especially after Fangio’s old friend Malik Reed didn’t make the initial 53-man roster. Hybrid defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah was the Dolphins lowest-graded player by PFF (29.5). Jaelen Phillips was the highest-graded edge defender, but it wasn’t that high of a grade.
PFF grades from the Dolphins edge defenders:
- Jaelen Phillips 66.8
- Andrew Van Ginkel 63.3
- Bradley Chubb 50.9
- Emmanuel Ogbah 29.5
The Vic Fangio scheme is based on two-high coverages and light boxes. So, ideally, the front can survive on early downs to exploit exotic looks on third downs to generate pressure. That wasn’t possible against the Chargers, though, in large part because the run defense was so bad. Most of the third-down situations — and there weren’t many — were favorable for the offense. In those cases, players have to win individual battles, and that didn’t happen.
It’s important to win one-on-ones, but the structure of the defense inherently demands a better performance from the front in the run game too.
That’s what happened, though, in the final drive. In a more favorable one-on-one situation against right tackle Trey Pipkins, Jaelan Phillips was able to speed-rush quarterback Justin Herbert and force a decisive incompletion.
Trey Pipkins got beat bad on the 3rd and 5 when we were up by 1 point in the 4th quarter.
We have to be real with this team. This was just one of the mistakes we made.
⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ pic.twitter.com/7HiTLsgJlC
— CHARGERS⚡️TRUTHER (@ChargersTruther) September 13, 2023
Head coach Mike McDaniel indicated on Wednesday that, individually, the players are trying to do an impactful job. However, the team needs a collective effort, which is to be expected in the first game with a new coordinator and such a different schematic approach. That, for McDaniel, will allow the defense to be more consistent throughout the season.
“Whatever the outcome is, and you can talk about both phases, are you gonna have a game that’s not as desirable as you’d like, does that mean you should try to improve, so you have a game that you do like and you take your foot off the gas?” McDaniel stressed. “The idea is that we have to improve on certain things, and specifically, if I can sum it up, there’s a lot of people with the right motivations trying to independently make plays and not thinking about technique and fundamentals.”
The edge-rushing production will be tested again on Sunday Night Football, but that’s also a big opportunity for the Dolphins to execute. According to an average ranking of PFF, SIS, and ESPN’s offensive line metrics, the New England Patriots were the 26th-best pass-protecting offensive line in Week 1. They faced the Philadelphia Eagles, who expectedly created a lot of problems, but the Dolphins have to exploit this fragility of the opponent. The Chargers, in comparison, were 14th on the offensive line pass-protection ratings.
The most important factor moving forward is how Vic Fangio will adapt his scheme to the Dolphins players. With Fangio’s San Francisco 49ers back in the early 2010s, the off-ball linebackers were the stars. With his Chicago Bears, they had an extremely strong defensive front. The Fangio-led Denver Broncos were a more balanced defense. Now, with the Dolphins, the best players are on the secondary, especially when Jalen Ramsey comes back from his injury. And Fangio knows he has to plan according to his personnel.
“There may be things that we did at previous stops that we won’t do much here because it doesn’t fit our players and vice versa,” the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the league said during the offseason. “We might do something a lot that we didn’t do in other places because it’s a better fit for our players. And sometimes it’s a better – you might think it’d be great to do something because it fits a certain player really good, but you really have to think about how it fits all 11 and what’s the best way to stop somebody from scoring too many points.”
The Matt Patricia era is over for the New England Patriots’ offense, and now they have a competent unit under Bill O’Brien. The Miami Dolphins need to pressure Mac Jones much more than they did against Justin Herbert, because it’s unrealistic to expect such a prolific offensive performance against Bill Belichick. For a real contender as the Dolphins are, every phase has to execute their part, and the next Sunday Night Football is a big challenge for a different version of Miami’s defense.
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