Kohou's Under-the-Radar Contribution

The Miami Dolphins secondary is benefiting from third-year DB Kader Kohou's versatility

Miami Dolphins cornerback Kader Kohou (4) celebrates following an interception against the Seattle Seahawks during the first quarter at Lumen Field. / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

Jalen Ramsey remains the marquee player on the Miami Dolphins defense, and one of the reasons he's so effective is his ability to line up at multiple spots.

But his coaches will point out that his ability to handle various roles without the Dolphins giving anything away to the opponent is a tribute to another member of the secondary, Kader Kohou.

And it may be that his biggest contribution to the defense this season, beyond his interception against the Seattle Seahawks, has been his ability to seamlessly slide from the slot to outside cornerback to allow Ramsey to be moved around.

"I don't want him to get kind of lost in all this because when Jalen does move, that requires somebody else to know the job too," defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said Thursday. "And Kader's been great, just seamlessly moving those guys around and offenses like trotting the same people out there and when they don't know where they're going to be, that's a problem."

Cornerbacks coach Mathieu Araujo echoed what Weaver said.

"Without Kader, being able to do what he can do doesn't allow Jalen to do what he's done in his career," Araujo said. "So Kader is as big of a part of that as you guys have seen as Jalen. Because when you move one guy, someone else has to do another job. So you've seen us be able to stay with the same people on the field and guys doing different jobs and moving that around. So that goes into Jalen's development and Kader's development and the time they put in in the offseason and in camp really to be able to learn the entire playbook from multiple positions and move around."

KADER'S COVERAGE METRICS

In his third season after joining the Dolphins as a rookie free agent, Kohou is having either a great year in coverage or a really bad, depending on which set of metrics or analytics you want to believe.

Kohou has a very, very good 66.1 opponent passer rating when targeted according to Pro Football Reference despite allowing 14 completions in 20 attempts — the one interception at Seattle obviously helps his rating.

According to Pro Football Focus, though, Kohou's coverage grade of 47.4 is sixth-worst among 102 cornerbacks and his overall grade of 45.7 is 100th out those 102.

The reality is that Kohou probably is somewhere in the middle, better than it was last season but maybe not quite on par with what he did during his surprising rookie season.

"I don't think anything has changed in him," Araujo said. "I think it's more so just his confidence and being able to play free. For me, the biggest thing I talk to him about is don't worry about making a mistake, just go make a play. If you go play fast and it doesn't work out in our favor, at least you play fast. I think you saw that in the last game on a third down, kind of hesitated on one of the tackles and then later in the game had the same opportunity shot and made the tackle. So that's really with everybody that what we emphasize and I think you just see with Kader he can change the game, he can do a lot of great things so when he plays with that confidence you see who he really is."

And his ability to do so out of the slot or outside only adds to his value as the third cornerback on the team.