Three critical defensive position battles as Dolphins strap on pads
Business is about to pick up in Davie, Florida. The Miami Dolphins are set to strap on the pads after an extensive acclimation period to ramp up conditioning and ease the NFL players back into the swing of things. And with the pads finally ready to come on, all of the team’s positional battles are suddenly going to heat up here in a hurry — as there are just a few weeks left until the scheduled start of the season.
But which position groups should we be watching most closely? The Dolphins are a team that is going to thrive on competition to win from within — their starters will have claimed their first victory of the season not against anyone on another team, but from a teammate hoping to claim the same role for Miami.
Here are the three hottest position groups to watch on the defensive side of the ball as the Dolphins strap on the pads.
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Nickel cornerback
No Dolphin showed greater improvement from the start of the 2019 season to the end of the year than CB Nik Needham. And yet the Dolphins still drafted Noah Igbinoghene in the 1st-round of the 2020 NFL Draft to presumably play the nickel role in their defense along with Xavien Howard and Byron Jones. But Igbinoghene is still a rookie and the Dolphins know Needham well — can he stave off being put into a depth role and command snaps in Miami’s sub-package heavy defense?
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Inside linebacker
The Dolphins are reportedly looking to push ILB Raekwon McMillan once again this summer, with rumors that he’s facing a potential showdown with Kamu Grugier-Hill for a starting role inside. McMillan is a hammer between the tackles but his coverage skills aren’t an area where he’s shown a lot of impact — which puts the Dolphins in a bind on some of their passing downs. Grugier-Hill, on the other hand, is a former safety and plenty comfortable in coverage; so if the Dolphins are hoping to find a more versatile option, they could opt to convert McMillan into a heavy personnel specialist.
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3rd-down pass rusher
Who is going to be the answer to getting heat off the edge on 3rd down? Probably a little bit of everyone. But which Dolphins defender will claim a featured pass rush role opposite Shaq Lawson? We have an incumbent in Vince Biegel — he was the best pass rusher on last year’s team. He’ll face competition from two rookies in Jason Strowbridge and Curtis Weaver, plus the presence of Emmanuel Ogbah at defensive end.
This is suddenly a pretty crowded group. The role may shift on a week to week basis based on matchups from opposing teams, but the Dolphins will need to start probing now to determine who their preferred options are in each scenario.
