The Dolphins defense is set for improvement in 2018

The Miami Dolphins defense finished 2017 as the 16th best unit. With the offseason changes, there is a good chance they better that mark this year.

The Miami Dolphins front office made a concentrated effort to shore up the defense this offseason. They invested two of their first three picks on defensive players, adding Minkah Fitzpatrick and Jerome Baker to fill in some holes on defense. Miami also added Akeem Spence and Robert Quinn during the offseason, giving Matt Burke a lot of weapons to use.

The preseason is just about over and the defense has had some good plays and some bad ones. But the big question is whether they will improve once the season officially starts and the young talents have more reps on the field.

Let’s break down the three areas of defense and see if the new additions are going to improve on last year’s unit. We’ll look at run defense, pass defense, pass-rush defense.

Run Defense: It’s hard to say whether or not the run defense will see a dramatic improvement in 2018. They finished 14th in the league, giving up 110.5 yards a game. Those are some pretty high numbers, especially considering Ndamukong Suh was on the team. Throughout the preseason, the run defense has been hit or miss.

With Suh’s departure, the run defense will rely on second year players Davon Godchaux and Vincent Taylor to help improve on this unit. The linebacker core should be able to help in this department with the return of last year’s second round pick, Raekwon McMillan (pass coverage is a different story). He is a solid run stuffer and, with more repetitions, should be able to make an immediate impact in the run game. Add in the hard-hitting safeties Reshad Jones and TJ McDonald and the unit should minimally remain the same in the coming year.

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Reps are key here. Once McMillan and Jerome Baker get more reps, they should be able to help shut down opposing rushing attacks, which should improve the overall unit.

Pass Defense: Minkah Fitzpatrick was a highly rated defensive player coming out of Alabama in this past draft and has looked the part in the preseason. He has been all over the field and has played great coverage on his assignments. As good as he has been, however, there are still concerns about a unit that ranked 16th in pass defense, allowing 225.2 yards a game.

Bobby McCain has been starting opposite Xavien Howard in the last few preseason games and that seems like there is an issue with the corners. McCain has been a solid nickel corner the past few seasons and bumping him to a more pronounced role in the defense leads me to believe there are some major struggles at this position. The hope was that Tony Lippett would return and challenge for the spot. So far, it doesn’t seem like he has challenged that much.

Jones and McDonald are great run stuffing safeties but both struggle somewhat against the pass. Maybe Baker can help here as well? Minkah will definitely help cover some of the ground, but I don’t see a drastic improvement coming in 2018. 

I do see more interceptions coming this year, which should help the team build confidence.

Pass-Rush Defense: This is the area of the defense that I think we will see the greatest improvement from last year. Miami ranked 22nd last year with 33 sacks on the year. Miami added Robert Quinn in a trade this offseason. Quinn had a decent season last year with the Rams, tallying 8.5 sacks. He has already shown to pay off, getting three sacks in the last two preseason games. The timeless Cameron Wake should be as dominant as ever and with Andre Branch coming back from an injury, this unit should improve. With even some contribution from William Hayes and Charles Harris, I see this unit becoming much stronger this season.

The big question is will this defense move up from the 16th ranked unit in 2018. I think the big jump will be in the pass rush. I see this unit playing great football all year and will help push the whole defense up the rankings. Pass and rush defense are still up in the air, but the rush defense has not looked great this preseason and the pass defense

This unit should improve this coming season, but breaking the top 10 will be a challenge. Injuries, lack of a true second starting cornerback and the perennial linebacker issues may hinder this unit, but improvement is definitely on the horizon for the Dolphins defense.