Don’t expect Miami Dolphins to be blitz crazy in 2023

The Miami Dolphins era of ‘Cover-Zero’ blitzing is coming to an end with the hiring of Vic Fangio and that is not a bad thing.

Fangio spoke for the first time with the media on Monday when he was officially announced as the team’s new defensive coordinator. In his past stints as a DC and even as an HC in Denver, Fangio has used blitzing as an as-needed scheme.

Fangio laughed when asked about his ideas about blitzing saying “As needed when I want to…versus having to.” He further stated, “If you have to, that’s not a great feeling. You want to on your terms.”

Fangio wouldn’t give percentages on his desire or lack of desire to blitz. Fangio did say that he has been in places were the team pressured a lot and some where they didn’t. He also said that a lot of what he does is fitting the scheme to fit the players he has.

In Miami, Fangio will have stellar edge-rushers in Jaelan Phillips and Emmanuel Ogbah if he returns to form after an off season last year. He has Bradley Chubb who is good at blitzing as well and Miami could bring back Melvin Gordon who played well off the bench last year in a similar role.

The Dolphins are turning the page on the nearly every down blitz that was run under Brian Flores and Josh Boyer since 2019. At times it worked very well but after too many of the Cover-Zero calls, offenses were able to take advantage, especially last year given the injuries in the secondary.

While Josh Boyer struggled to change his defensive schemes to fit the injuries, Fangio has been around long enough to know what might need to change if the situation happens again.

Regardless, it doesn’t appear that Fangio is a big “blitz” guy unless he has to or unless it fits into what he is trying to dictate defensively.