One thing we know for certain about the Miami Dolphins and their defense is that the team is going to use hordes of defensive backs throughout the course of a game. Seven defensive backs on Miami’s 2020 unit played more than 250 snaps on the year; a high figure when you consider Byron Jones, Xavien Howard, Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe were established starters with Jones’ missed time early in the season serving as the only prominent absence from the lineup. Their respective snap counts taken?
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Jones: 78%
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Howard: 90%
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McCain: 89%
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Rowe: 88%
These guys stayed on the field. And yet Miami still found plenty of work for Nik Needham, Brandon Jones and even Noah Igbinoghene (who stepped in for Jones early in the year). There’s a lot of pressure added onto the team’s fifth defensive back, be it Jones, Needham, Igbinoghene or one of the team’s new additions for 2021. Miami is going to life in sub-packages quite a bit, meaning there’s going to be a lot of action to be found for the “nickel”.
What makes for a good defender in the nickel? Brian Flores shared his perspective on the position yesterday during a South Florida press availability.
“I think it’s obviously speed and quickness and ability to tackle. I think those guys who have played the nickel position end up in run fits a little bit more than guys on the perimeter, so just an understanding of fronts and what’s happening in front of you – more opportunity to blitz. And then just from a coverage standpoint, you don’t have the sideline, so they can go inside, they can go outside,” explained Flores.
“\It’s tough playing in there. It’s not easy and from a mental standpoint, there’s a lot going on as well. So as many guys as we can get to play inside and play different roles – I think Nik Needham has grown in that role. Justin Coleman has played that position in the past and Jamal Perry as well. We’re just going to continue to train guys and help them improve, grow.”
One thing Flores is also a believer in, not just based off his explanation of the position on Friday but through the course of his entire tenure with the team, is that versatility and past experiences taking snaps in different spots can be very valuable to helping the communication and the calls of coverages on the back end .Miami cross-trains many of their defenders to play in multiple spots — fostering an understanding of the entire defensive concept.
“I think a lot of times if you can play inside and you’ve played outside and you understand what’s happening as an outside corner to the inside corner, if you have that kind of understanding when you’re making calls and those guys are working together, there’s a little bit more of a, ‘Hey, I know what you’re going through. I’ve been in that spot’,” said Flores.
“And oftentimes it works better together.”
Such is life in the Dolphins’ defense. Better together with communication. But you’ll still need speed, tackling and mental fortitude, particularly if you’re the defensive back being added on to the run fits and playing inside.