Dolphins Defensive Thoughts Heading Into Season

The Miami Dolphins made upgrades at all levels of their defense in the offseason, but just how big of a jump can that unit make in 2020?

As a handful of Dolphins players spoke to the media in recent days, one question that came up was whether the defense had the potential of becoming a top 10 or top 12 unit in the NFL.

That would be quite the jump after the Dolphins finished 30th in total yards, 27th in rushing defense and 26th in pass defense last season.

Of course, the 2019 Dolphins defense did not have Emmanuel Ogbah or Shaq Lawson or Raekwon Davis up front, or Kyle Van Noy or Elandon Roberts or Kamu Grugier-Hill at linebacker, or Byron Jones or Noah Igbinoghene in the secondary.

The Dolphins quite obviously are much better in terms of personnel heading into this season than they were last year, but it doesn't mean that everything will be smooth sailing.

For one thing, who stands out on this team as an elite pass rusher?

Anybody?

The player who had the most sacks last season is Van Noy, who had a modest 6.5 with the Patriots. Ogbah had five in 10 games with the Chiefs, so he likely would have topped that number had he stayed healthy.

But there are no guarantees here, and not being able to rush the passer is going to really hurt the Dolphins the way it did last year.

In terms of run defense, there's reason for big expectations for Raekwon Davis because the second-round pick from Alabama really looked the part in training camp. But that was practice and it's going to be a different ballgame in the regular season.

And there's one thing we can't escape when looking at Davis, and that's his height. It's ideal for someone lining up outside on the line or even at D-tackle in a 4-3 alignment, but it's not ideal for a 3-4 nose tackle, which is where he's listed on the depth chart.

If you don't buy that notion, just try to think of the great 3-4 run stuffers — Keith Traylor, Vince Wilfork — and you'll realize those guys were a lot wider than they were tall.

The starter at nose tackle is Davon Godchaux, and if we're being honest, he's a bit on the light side for the job requirement.

So there are no guarantees when it comes to run defense.

The cornerback position should be very good, assuming Xavien Howard can regain his form of 2018, though we won't know for sure until a few games into the regular season because he only started practicing late in camp and, of course, there were no preseason games to offer a barometer.

Byron Jones has been very good the past few years and should be fine, and Igbinoghene looked like the real deal in camp.

At safety, Bobby McCain is a great leader — he was named a captain — and a great team player, but the reality is he didn't look great at that position last year after switching over from cornerback and the jury is still out on that position switch.

Among the non-starters, look out for Andrew Van Ginkel, who played some good football down the stretch last season and looked good in camp.

And let's not forget Elandon Roberts, who looked great in camp. I've said many times, in fact, he was the best player in the open practices. But Roberts also started only three games last season and played only 20 percent of the defensive snaps for New England. That should mean something.

Lawson was a big-name acquisition as a former first-round pick, but he played in a 4-3 scheme the past three years and word out of Buffalo is that's the defense that suits him best.

The point of all of this isn't to poo-poo the Dolphins upgrades because the talent level clearly is better, but rather to point out that we still might be a long way from this being a top 10 defense.