The Dolphins Have No Easy Answers At Inside Linebackers
Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images
When writing about Kader Kohou last week, we highlighted how critical his absence would be against the Arizona Cardinals’ solid group of receivers. The trio of Michael Wilson, Greg Dortch, and Marvin Harrison Jr. is one of the more underrated wide receiver groups in the league. Sure enough, that came to fruition last Sunday when Harrison put up 111 yards receiving and a touchdown and Wilson caught five passes for 31 yards and a score of his own against the Miami Dolphins’ injury-riddled secondary.
But the star of the show for the Cardinals was tight end Trey McBride, who led the in receiving against the Phins’ defense. McBride celebrated National Tight Ends Day by reeling in nine catches for 124 yards. McBride had the second-most receiving yards of all tight ends this week, only behind the San Francisco 49ers’ George Kittle (128). It was McBride’s best statistical performance of the season, and the second-best of his three-year career.
The biggest reason why McBride was able to wreack havoc on Miami was the Dolphins’ starting linebackers. This game was merely a microcosm of the Dolphins’ linebacker play this season. Jordyn Brooks and David Long Jr. have both been extremely inconsistent from week to week and their strengths and weaknesses don’t seem to complement each other. This begs the question, do the Dolphins have an answer at inside linebacker?
Let’s start with Long, who got cooked in coverage by McBride on this play below. Here, McBride does a good job of selling the crossing route against Long before using that 4.5 speed of his to sprint downfield, which led to an easy completion that ended with McBride hurdling over safety Jordan Poyer.
Trey McBride shows off the hops
📺: #AZvsMIA on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/r8hXzqPZsk— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024
Here’s the thing with Long: he’s one of those guys who has the athletic traits that scouts look for in a three-down inside linebacker, but he’s not a particularly polished football player. Long had his fair share of mental lapses in coverage at West Virginia, particularly in zone coverage. At the NCAA level, he had enough top-end athleticism to recover and get away with those miscues. That’s not the case in the NFL. Long needs to shore that up, and unfortunately, his lack of awareness in coverage is preventing him from reaching his full potential.
To his credit, Long’s biggest strength outside of his athleticism is his run-stopping ability. The problem with that, however, is Miami went out this offseason and signed former first-round pick Jordyn Brooks, who shares a similar skillset.
Coming out of Texas Tech in the 2021 draft, Jordyn Brooks was this big-bodied linebacker (240 lbs.) who started four years in college and played with a mean streak. Similarly to Long, the biggest appeal with Brooks was his athletic profile. Despite being a larger linebacker, Brooks ran a 4.5 40-yard dash, which helped raise his draft stock from being a potential Day 2 pick to the 27th overall pick.
Brooks’ biggest weakness, like Long, was that he’s much better suited playing downhill, and wasn’t particularly good in coverage in college. Not much has changed on that front in the NFL, meaning Brooks’ strengths and weaknesses as a player and they’re nearly identical to that of Long’s. The reason why the Dolphins’ linebacker corps has been so disappointing is because you have two guys who both struggle in coverage, despite being good athletes. Brooks’ PFF coverage grade currently sits at 59.5, while Long’s coverage grade is at a staggeringly low 39.2.
The Dolphins could theoretically make a change at linebacker by giving Channing Tindall more snaps, or perhaps trade for a strong coverage player in Los Angeles Rams linebacker Devin Lloyd. However, the truth of the matter is that Miami is unlikely to rely on Tindall, who hasn’t panned out as a former third-round pick and has hardly seen the field, nor are they in a position to make a win-now trade with a 2-5 record. The likeliest outcome is that the Dolphins ride out the season with Long and Brooks as the starters, no matter how poorly they perform.
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