Byron Jones dishes on what makes Dolphins defense mesh

The Miami Dolphins are on the cusp of something completely unprecedented. With one game left to play, the Dolphins’ defense is tops in the league in points allowed per game — leading the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams by a half a point per game or less. It’s going to come right down to the wire for who the NFL’s top scoring defense is in 2020 — but if it is Miami, it will mean the Dolphins have gone from worst to first in scoring defense in just one offseason.

That’s an incredible feat and a testament to the investments made into the group by Dolphins general manager Chris Grier and head coach Brian Flores. Additionally, defensive coordinator Josh Boyer has been excellent this season for Miami in helping to pull everything together.

But from the inside point of view, what are some of the reasons why this defense works so well together? One of Miami’s high-priced free agents additions of 2020, cornerback Byron Jones, spoke with NFL Network’s ‘Good Morning Football’ earlier this week and shared his perspective.

“When you look at our defense, I’d say about 60 to 70 percent of the guys on our defense are new. They’re new to the Miami Dolphins this year. And I think a lot of credit goes to the front office and the coaches in terms of what players and types of players they’re looking for and the type of character,” said Jones.

“Like I said, a lot of us didn’t play together last year. A lot of us were on different teams but when you have the right group of guys come in and really take this seriously and understand the challenge ahead people gel pretty quickly.”

All of that inexperience together showed up early on with the Dolphins allowing 217 rushing yards in a Week 1 loss to New England and 31 points in two of the next three weeks in losses to Buffalo and Seattle. In the 11 games since, the Dolphins are 9-2 and allowing just 16.9 points per game over those 11 games — and that includes 33 conceded to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 14. Perhaps that is the most exciting dynamic of all for the Dolphins; they’re doing all of this with no annual continuity; so imagine what this group will look like together in Year 2 of all the same starters together.