Insight into how the Dolphins’ defense has become among worst in league statistically

In the weeks between hiring coach Mike McDaniel and the start of free agency, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier and the organization made two pivotal defensive decisions, beyond retaining coordinator Josh Boyer:

▪ They concluded this unit is far closer in quality to the group that allowed a league-best 15.5 points per game over the final nine games of the season – against mostly substandard quarterbacks - than the defense that allowed 29.1 points per game in the first eight games against teams led by Mac Jones, Josh Allen, Derek Carr, Carson Wentz, Tom Brady, Trevor Lawrence, Matt Ryan and Allen again.

▪ Toward that end, the Dolphins decided they were fine returning intact their defensive line, gave Emanuel Ogbah a four-year, $65 million deal; re-signed Elandon Roberts and Duke Riley in order to retain their top three inside linebackers (along with Jerome Baker); and kept intact their top six cornerbacks and safeties.

Five games into the season - and a day after the Dolphins allowed 40 points against the Jets - it’s reasonable to ask whether more changes should have been made to a unit that ranks among the league’s worst in most categories.

But there’s an enormous caveat here: The Dolphins were counting on having two well-regarded cornerbacks, Byron Jones and Xavien Howard, blanket receivers, giving them the confidence to blitz early and often.

Jones hasn’t played at all because of a spring Achilles injury/surgery that has taken longer to heal than anybody expected. And Howard was limited for two games by multiple groin injuries and didn’t play on Sunday; among cornerbacks, he has the league’s fourth worst passer rating against at 149.3.

So Miami hasn’t had its two highest paid defenders either at all or at full strength. Even so, the overall production has been disappointing, aside from the Patriots opener, the fourth quarter of the Ravens game and late fourth-quarter stands against Buffalo.

Consider:

▪ The Dolphins are yielding 26.2 points per game, which is 29th, ahead of only the Chargers, Seahawks and Lions. That’s well above the Dolphins’ 21.9 points per game relinquished last season, which was 17th.

▪ The Dolphins defense has just one interception (only the Giants have fewer) and four takeaways, which is tied for third-fewest behind only Las Vegas and Washington.

So aside from a couple of plays in the Patriots opener, momentum-changing turnovers aren’t being created. Last season, the Dolphins’ 26 takeaways were ninth in the league.

▪ The Dolphins are relinquishing 387 yards per game, which is 25th in the league – compared to 337 last season, which was 15th.

They’re also giving up 276 passing yards per game, which is 28th; last season, they yielded 227.

▪ The Dolphins have only nine sacks through five games, which ranks fourth worst in the league. Every team that has fewer sacks than the Dolphins has a losing record.

Miami is on pace for 31 sacks, well below its 48 last season, when it finished fifth in the league in that category.

▪ So who’s to blame for the inadequate pass rush?

There are multiple culprits, with the defensive line at the top of the list.

Ogbah has just one sack after producing nine each of the past two years; Pro Football Focus rates him 86th among 104 edge defenders this season, after ranking him 13th last season. He has started only two of five games this season but is still playing a lot.

Ogbah has 11 pressures in 151 pass-rushing chances this season. For perspective, he’s on pace for 37 quarterback pressures, compared with an average of 63 each of the past two seasons.

This is pretty damning: The Dolphins’ starting defensive line on Sunday - Zach Sieler, Raekwon Davis and Christian Wilkins - have no sacks this season.

Wilkins and Davis don’t have any; Davis now has .5 sacks in 34 NFL games, while Wilkins has eight in 48 NFL starts.

And this is telling: Davis has just one quarterback pressure in 64 pass rush chances; Wilkins has 6 in 144.

Sieler, who has started four of five games, has no sacks despite his playing time jumping this year from 46 to 64 percent of Miami’s defensive snaps. Sieler has eight pressures in 118 pass rushing snaps.

This season, Ogbah has played barely more than Sieler (225 snaps to 211.)

▪ Among outside linebackers, results have been modest.

Melvin Ingram, the defense’s only significant veteran newcomer, has two sacks, Jaelan Phillips only one (after 8.5 last season) and Andrew Van Ginkel none in just 87 defensive snaps.

Phillips has 12 pressures in 124 pass rush chances, but his former Miami Hurricanes teammate Greg Rousseau (18 pressures, four sacks in 117 pass rush chances) is having the better second season. UM picked Phillips 18th in the 2021 draft, 12 spots before the Bills took Rousseau.

Ingram has 13 pressures in 96 pass-rush chances, which is good.

▪ Here’s how the absence of a healthy Howard - and Byron Jones altogether - has had a corrosive effect on the pass rush:

Brandon Jones and Jevon Holland are two of the league’s better pass-rushing safeties. But Holland has rushed the passer only 10 times this season. So he’s on pace for 34 pass rushes, compared to 65 last season.

Brandon Jones, who led all NFL safeties in sacks last season, rushed the quarterback 93 times in 15 games last season. He’s currently on pace to rush the QB 72 times in 15 games (or 82 in 17 games).

But without Howard and Jones, the Dolphins cannot rush Jones or Holland as much because it would leave their young cornerbacks exposed. That has been hurtful to the pass rush.

The Dolphins are blitzing 21.4 percent of their defensive downs (13th in the league), down from 39.6 percent last year (second in the NFL), per Pro Football Reference.

Even inside linebacker Jerome Baker - a good blitzer - has been impacted. He’s on a pace for 115 pass rush chances, compared to 156 last year. He had 7 and 5.5 sacks the past two seasons, 1.5 so far this year.

▪ The Dolphins are permitting third downs to be converted into first downs 49.2 percent of the time; only Detroit and Chicago are worse in that category. Last season, the Dolphins were below average (20th at 41.1), but not nearly this bad.

▪ The Dolphins are allowing an opponent quarterback rating of 106.2, which ranks 30th, narrowly ahead of Tennessee and Seattle. Last season, Miami was seventh, permitting an 85.4 passer rating.

▪ The Dolphins defense is above average in two categories: yards allowed per carry at 4.1 (tied for eighth best) and seventh in fourth down conversions allowed at 33.3 percent.

Though some might partly attribute the defensive regression to the departure of Brian Flores, Dolphins defenders say not much has changed in approach beyond the amount of blitzing.

Boyer and the Dolphins insist he called the plays during every game in 2021, disputing a report that Flores called the plays during the second half of 2021. Boyer is essentially “head coach” of the defense, McDaniel said last month.

The Dolphins entered hoping they could have a dominant defense, similar to the 49ers’.

But San Francisco’s defense has proven to be far, far better - which is unfortunate for Miami because the Dolphins own the 49ers’ first-round pick in the 2023 draft, and also because they play Dec. 4 in Santa Clara.

The 49ers (3-2) are allowing 3.0 yards per rush, have 21 sacks, are allowing third down completions just 30 percent of the time, and are yielding 12.2 points per game.

The Dolphins (3-2) face Minnesota’s erratic but sometimes dangerous Kirk Cousins on Sunday - he’s eighth in the league in passing yards - but after that, are due to play a stretch of middling QBs: Kenny Pickett, Jared Goff, Justin Fields, Jacoby Brissett and Davis Mills.

Perhaps that stretch of quarterbacks could lift this defense, much like it did last year when the Dolphins’ stretch of eight wins in nine games featured more subpar QBs (Mike Glennon, Tyrod Taylor, Ian Book, Joe Flacco, Cam Newton) than really good ones (Lamar Jackson).