The Dolphins’ candidates for defensive coordinator signal likely change in philosophy

Two days before head coach Mike McDaniel announced he was retaining defensive coordinator Josh Boyer on his inaugural staff last February, the Dolphins released an interview in which McDaniel spoke on a bevy of topics, including defensive continuity.

“I heard this early in my career, and I think it’s very true: You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse,” he said. “You don’t stay the same. So, I think that hunger that they’ve had here is very important. But you don’t stop where you left off. You continue to grow.

“And that’s all I see from the people in the building and the players that I’ve talked to. They’re not saying, ‘hey, that was cool to be a pretty good defense.’ No, we want to win football games. Well, if we have to be the very best defense in the league to do it, let’s do that. If we can be marginally worse, but the offense can be a lot better, let’s do that. It doesn’t matter. It’s a team sport. We’re focused on the team getting better, and the team winning football games, and knowing that last year, it’s a foundation but it doesn’t mean anything moving forward.”

The Dolphins did improve on offense, going from 20.3 points per game in 2021 to 23.4 in 2022 and 4.8 yards per play to 6.1. However, the defense experienced a level of regression that was not expected by many. Miami gave up the ninth-most points per game this season (23.5) after ranking 15th in scoring defense in 2021 (21.9).

Injuries to key players hampered the defense throughout the season. But in a statement that accompanied the announcement of Boyer’s dismissal last week, McDaniel said it was a decision he felt was “in the best long-term interests of the Miami Dolphins and the continued growth of our players and team.”

Now, after molding his offensive coaching staff to fit his vision, McDaniel will be able to do the same for the defense. And if the backgrounds of the Dolphins’ four known candidates are any indication, McDaniel is steering Miami’s defense in a new direction in 2023.

When former coach Brian Flores arrived in Miami in 2019, he brought over the Patriots defensive scheme that he helped oversee alongside Bill Belichick. In 2020, Flores promoted Boyer from cornerbacks coach to defensive coordinator. Since 2019, the Dolphins defense has been one of the most aggressive units in the NFL. It was a defense that relied on man coverage, often placed one deep safety in coverage, whether it be Cover 1 or Cover 3, and blitzed among the highest rates in the NFL.

The Dolphins made personnel changes to allow that philosophy to thrive, notably signing cornerback Byron Jones before the 2020 season to pair alongside Xavien Howard. The process produced great success, as Miami allowed the sixth-fewest points and led the NFL with 29 takeaways. And despite a slow start in 2021, the Dolphins allowed the second-fewest points per game during their 8-1 finish.

But with Flores fired, injuries and teams better prepared for Miami’s blitz packages, the defense struggled to maintain the success of previous seasons.

Boyer attempted to adjust. The team’s usage of Cover 0, a man-to-man blitz concept with no deep safety, decreased from 12.5 percent in 2021 to 9.8 percent in 2022, according to TruMedia. And the Dolphins were in zone coverage on 55.6 percent of opposing dropbacks, the defense’s highest rate in the past four seasons.

Boyer often spoke about marrying the pass rush to coverage, but it often proved elusive. The defensive front wouldn’t get to the quarterback quick enough or poor coverage would waste an effective rush.

Now, the Dolphins are potentially headed for a 180-degree pivot in their approach.

Four candidates have surfaced for Miami’s opening: Vic Fangio, Sean Desai, Kris Richard and Anthony Campanile, Dolphins linebackers coach.

Fangio, a longtime defensive coordinator who spent this season as a defensive consultant for the Eagles, is reportedly a top choice for the Dolphins. And he’s viewed as one of most influential defensive minds in the NFL, leading units with concepts that are built to stymie the league’s passing explosion.

Much of Fangio’s defensive principles are focused on zone coverage with two-deep safeties, presnap disguises and minimal blitzing. In the 2018 season, one year before he was hired as Broncos head coach, Fangio lead a Bears defense that allowed the fewest points in the NFL and led the league with 36 takeaways.

Desai, who served as the Bears defensive coordinator during the 2021 season, called Fangio his “biggest mentor in the NFL.”

“The why of why I think the defense is popular is I think we’ve got answers,” Desai said in 2021. “It emphasizes player productivity and really emphasizes a team defense. We’re not looking for one guy to win all the time. We’re going to have opportunities for a lot of guys to win in different situations, and I think that’s a valuable thing.”

Richard, who was Seahawks defensive coordinator from 2015 to 2017, helped continue to lead the “Legion of Boom” defenses that feature high usage of Cover 3 and some of the lowest blitz rates in the NFL. This season, his first as Saints co-defensive coordinator, New Orleans had a top-10 scoring defense and one of the highest rates of two-high concepts in the league, though Dennis Allen continued to call plays after his promotion from defensive coordinator to head coach.

Campanile is somewhat of an unknown, the lone known candidate with no experience as a NFL coordinator, although he served as co-defensive coordinator at Boston College in 2018.

McDaniel hasn’t said much about what he favors on defense but he did reveal last September that the defensive front is his favorite position because “they dictate the terms the quarterback is able to play on and they establish the line of scrimmage.” And he was just on a staff with the 49ers where the defensive coordinator, current Jets coach Robert Saleh, leaned on high rates of zone coverage and four-man rushes to get to the quarterback.

Will McDaniel seek a coordinator with a similar vision? His decision is a pivotal one for a team looking to establish itself as contenders in 2023.