MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami Dolphins assistant Danny Crossman spent part of his Thursday morning explaining to reporters what went wrong in one of the worst special teams performances you’ll ever see.
Mike McDaniel and his top lieutenant Frank Smith are responsible for the lowest-scoring offense in football.
As for first-year Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver? He’s been everything expected and more.
Anthony Weaver’s Strong First Year With Miami Dolphins
Certainly, Weaver’s group hasn’t been perfect. But given his hodge-podge roster and such little help from the other side of the ball, it would be unreasonable to expect much more from the Dolphins’ defense in 2024.
And if we’ve noticed, you can bet that teams that will be making a change at head coach this cycle have as well.
Weaver got multiple interviews for top jobs back in January. Given his performance in his first year as Dolphins DC, he’ll likely have a full appointment book again three months from now.
The Dolphins this year are a top-half defense despite replacing Christian Wilkins with a menagerie of small-contract players, despite Bradley Chubb spending the first month of the season on injured reserve, and despite having Jaelan Phillips for just 134 snaps before losing the fourth-year pass rusher for the season.
Those three players accounted for 26.5 of the team’s 56 sacks last year.
And yet, the Dolphins enter Week 7’s showdown with Anthony Richardson and the Indianapolis Colts ranked in the top 12 in 11 key defensive categories and in the top five in third-down efficiency (25.5%), passing yards per game (159.6), total defense (285.4), and first downs per game (16.4).
“He’s very process-driven,” said Calais Campbell, the ageless defensive lineman who played under Weaver for one season in Baltimore before reuniting in Miami this offseason.
“And he really just has an excellence to him that he demands from all of us. I think sometimes when you’re in a new situation it kind of takes a while to get your processes established and how you want to do things, but I think we’re starting to get to that level where now we kind of can anticipate things, how we interact with each other, how we do things.
“So I think we should start seeing an uptick on everything, but I think he’s been great. He’s been a great coach as I expected, and I think he’s going to continue to help us be in a position to win ball games.”
Even with their injury issues, the Dolphins have talent. Campbell, Jalen Ramsey, and Zach Sieler have all been excellent this year.
But what’s been most impressive about the job Weaver has done is that his defense ranks 12th in both EPA (-040) and score rate (35.1%) despite a noticeable lack of big plays. The Dolphins don’t have a single defender with more than two sacks, and they as a team have forced the league’s fifth-fewest turnovers (four).
Weaver has made up for that deficiency by blitzing on more than one in four dropbacks, a strategy that has resulted in a more than respectable pressure rate (22.5%).
Most importantly, the Dolphins’ defense has been quite good from a down-in, down-out perspective. They’re 11th in yards per pass (6.2), 12th in yards per play (5.3), and 12th in run-stop win rate (32%).
Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver seems very confident that Jevon Holland will play with his broken left hand. pic.twitter.com/BVLVFzWMGP
— Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) October 17, 2024
To be fair, the team’s rankings on run defense (23rd in yards per carry) leave something to be desired, but a bunch of long runs have skewed that stat.
“Obviously, we got to improve there,” Weaver said Thursday. “That’s certainly a thorn in our side at this point. It’s particularly the explosive plays that have hurt us in the run game.
“In terms of our success, I think a lot of that has been our pass defense and then just guys collectively starting to grasp big picture-wise what we’re trying to accomplish. I think as long as we don’t give up those explosives and let the ball go over our head in the pass game, we have the guys that are going to make plays.”
Help from the Dolphins’ offense would make Miami’s defensive rankings even better. The Dolphins didn’t play with a lead the first four weeks of the season. McDaniel’s group ranks 29th in both yards per play (4.7) and third-down conversion rate (30.3%).
That has been a big reason why Weaver’s group ranks just 17th in scoring defense (22.6 per game) — a stat he’s not thrilled about.
“I’m pretty sure that you win 100% of the games where you score more points than the other team,” Weaver said. “So we’re trying to hold the offense to as little points as possible. All the other stuff is incredibly important.
“[But scoring defense is] what’s most important to me. We want to be great on defense but most importantly we want to win games. That’s the most important stat and there’s going to be certain games that are required to win a certain way and whatever way that is we’ll try to play that way and get it done.”
