What Dolphins Defense Should Look Like with Fangio

Breaking down the scheme that's helped make Vic Fangio one of the most respected defensive coaches around

The Miami Dolphins reportedly indeed will be getting Vic Fangio to be their new defensive coordinator.

Fangio is one of the most well-regarded defensive minds in the sport, and also has head-coaching experience from his stint with the Denver Broncos from 2019-21.

Fangio’s defense will bring massive changes to Miami’s defense after years spent under former head coach Brian Flores and former defensive coordinator Josh Boyer’s Patriots-inspired system.

We’ve decided to provide a breakdown of what Fangio’s scheme could look like in Miami. It’s important to note coaches are constantly changing their systems. Fangio spent the year serving as a defensive consultant for the Eagles. There’s a chance he adds wrinkles to his system.

However, historically, he and coaches who run a similar system do abide by roughly the same basic tenets.

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Fangio’s Defensive Philosophy

Before diving into specific coverages or defensive fronts, it’s important to establish the goal of Fangio’s defensive system because it couldn’t be more different than Miami’s defense under Boyer.

Fangio’s defense focuses on limiting explosive plays by playing heavy zone coverage and tricking teams into running the ball when it looks advantageous but really isn’t.

Fangio’s defenses don’t blitz a lot either. His Denver defenses never finished higher than 13th in the NFL in blitz rate, according to Sports Info Solutions.

The idea is to limit explosive passing plays, force teams to run the football and then win with four pass rushers up front. Fangio aims to do this through a lot of post-snap movement, keeping offenses on their toes.

This is a heavy contrast to Miami’s defense under Boyer, which lived in man coverage, blitzed excessively and rarely rotated safeties post-snap.

Boyer’s defense wanted to overwhelm opposing offenses with sheer pressure. Fangio’s defense wants to outsmart opposing offenses with scheme.

Fangio’s Favorite Coverages

A core concept of Fangio’s defense is showing two-high safeties before the snap, and then rotating into a different look after the snap.

In Fangio’s last season with the Broncos (2021), Denver finished first in the NFL in using a two-high safety shell. For reference, Miami finished 32nd in two-high shell usage in 2021 and 2022.

Cover 4 or Quarters

Cover 4 is a good place to start since it’s the base on which the other coverages are built. Cover 4 — also known as “quarters coverage” — is where four defenders split the field into four deep zones and three defenders occupy shallow zones.

Typically, those four defenders are two outside cornerbacks and two deep safeties. In its most basic form, it looks something like this:

NFL Game Pass

This coverage is typically played with “match principles,” which means the defenders will match the receiver's routes inside of their zone. The idea is to put a cover over the offense and not let them hit anything down the field.

With four deep defenders, that becomes much easier.

Cover 6/Cover 8

Fangio’s defenses also love to use Cover 6 and Cover 8, which are a combination of both Cover 4 and Cover 2. Cover 6 is often referred to as “quarter quarter half” and Cover 8 is often referred to as “half quarter quarter.”

These coverages can be hard to tell apart at times, but the key is identifying where the offense’s passing strength (the side where they have the most receivers) is located.

If the defense plays Cover 2 where the offense has the most receivers then it’s Cover 8. If the defense plays Cover 4 where the offense has the most receivers it’s Cover 6.

Here’s a good example of what Cover 8 looks like. If you were to flip the defender's responsibilities, it would be Cover 6.

NFL Game Pass

The defenders labeled with yellow arrows are the Cover 2 defenders and the defenders with red arrows are the Cover 4 players.

These defenses can be extra helpful when facing teams with dominant wide receivers. A lot of teams like to isolate those players away from a trips formation, as Kansas City does in the picture above.

Cover 8 allows the defense to potentially double that receiver with a corner playing underneath (cloud coverage) and the safety playing over the top. Brandon Staley, who worked under Fangio, used this in Miami’s matchup against the Chargers this season to disrupt Tyreek Hill.

Other Coverages

Those are what Fangio’s defenses run most often, but it’s far from all his defenses are capable of. Remember, the idea behind his defenses is to show two safeties at the snap and then move post-snap.

Fangio will run Cover 3 and will run Cover 1 man from time to time as well. Those are some of the curveballs Fangio will throw at teams to keep them from gashing the Cover 4 based zone coverages he loves so much.

Defensive Fronts, Run Defense

Fangio’s defense uses a 3-4 defensive front. That means three-down defensive linemen and four players standing up. Typically, this includes two outside linebackers rushing from the outside and two middle linebackers patrolling the middle of the field.

This is a pretty standard look and is one of the defenses most fans know. Dolphins fans should be familiar with it since it’s exactly the type of front Boyer and Flores used.

There is one key difference between Fangio’s version and Boyer’s. It’s how the defensive lineman are asked to defend their gaps.

Miami asked its defensive linemen to defend two gaps against the run, which is also called “two-gapping.” However, Fangio asks his defensive linemen to play “a gap and a half.”

This is supposed to be the best of both worlds. In theory, defensive linemen in Fangio’s scheme can still be aggressive in defending their primary gap, but can’t be out of control to the point where they lose their other gap assignment.

Players like Christian Wilkins, Zach Sieler and even Raekwon Davis should project well to this philosophy.

6-1 Tilt

This is where things get a little bit interesting in the front seven of Fangio’s defense. He’s largely credited as the defensive coordinator who solved Sean McVay’s explosive offense during the Rams' Super Bowl run in 2018, and he did with the “6-1 tilt.”

It’s actually a common goal-line defense teams use quite often. Fangio saw it as a way to stop McVay’s outside/wide zone running scheme. The idea is to stack six defenders on the line of scrimmage and prevent the offensive line from winning a gap when they step in unison on a zone run.

It looks something like this:

NFL Game Pass

The six defenders up front are marked with lines and the one linebacker is circled, hence the 6-1 tilt.

The reason Fangio doesn’t always get credit for this innovation is that the whole world saw it shut down the Rams in the Super Bowl when Bill Belichick and the Patriots used it for basically the entire game.

Los Angeles scored just three points against the Patriots in the Super Bowl and six points against Fangio when he was the Bears’ defensive coordinator in 2018.

After the Patriots showed it to the entire league, it became much more common across the NFL, and Fangio used it when he was the head coach in Denver, too. Dolphins fans should expect to see it next season.

Fangio's arrival in Miami should mean plenty of personnel and scheme changes. The Dolphins committed hard to their previous defensive style, so the transformation won’t happen overnight.

However, Fangio has proven without a doubt his ability to scheme and adapt over time is impressive. In 2022, it felt like teams had figured out Miami’s blitz-happy approach, so they could use a little help from someone like Fangio who specializes in disguise. 

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