How the Dolphins Will Tighten Up Coverage On Tight End

The Miami Dolphins will face a quality tight end Sunday after giving up a 100-yard performance by the Raiders' Brock Bowers in Week 11.

Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers (89) runs with the football past Miami Dolphins safety Jordan Poyer (21) during the third quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins defense certainly had issues with rookie sensation Brock Bowers last weekend, but it wasn't the first time opposing tight ends have proved problematic.

The Dolphins will be facing another solid tight end in the former New England Patriots starter Hunter Henry, whose production has gone up since rookie third-round pick Drake Maye took over at quarterback.

After Bowers burned the Dolphins for 126 yards and a touchdown, three weeks after Tre McBride of the Arizona Cardinals had nine catches for 124 yards against Miami, defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver says all necessary steps will be taken to ensure no repeat.

Those steps could absolutely include Pro Bowl cornerback Jalen Ramsey being assigned to cover Henry at times. That was actually part of the original plan against the Raiders, except one little issue came up.

"I think where we fell short last week was when they had the change in coordinator," Weaver explained Thursday morning. "Really, they changed philosophically some of the things they were doing with him. So when those discussions came up, with the previous coordinator with [Luke] Getsy, on third down, in particular, Brock was chipping a lot. So the one thing you'd hate to do is you'd have Ramsey on Brock Bowers, and he's chipping and going to the flat or something like that.

"In game, you'd like to do some things but there's multiple pieces that have to move in order to make some of those changes. It's usually not just that easy. So we're certainly accounting for Hunter Henry. We know the athlete he is. We've played against him. We feel comfortable with our matchups. And we know that he's certainly a, there's a comfort level there with a Drake make it and we have to account for that."

Henry had only two catches for 32 yards when the Dolphins faced the Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Week 5, and one of them was a 25-yard gain on the very final play when he was tackled at the Miami 11-yard line to clinch its 15-10 victory.

But that was with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback.

In the five games that Brissett started, Henry had 16 catches; in the six games that Maye started, he had 30, so his average has gone from 3.2 receptions a game to 5.0 receptions.

Henry has had two games with eight catches this season — one with Brissett, one with Maye — and is coming off a six-catch, 63-yard performance in New England's 28-22 loss against the Los Angeles Rams.

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