Miami Dolphins Making MAJOR Changes To Defense Before Week 5 vs. Panthers?

Miami Dolphins Making MAJOR Changes To Defense Before Week 5 vs. Panthers?

[Music] There is no secret about it. The Miami Dolphins defense through four weeks, the first month of the season, has been absolutely abysmal. There needs to be changes to this defense, but I also think some changes are on the horizon. Anthony Weaver spoke to Dolphins media today and I wanted to share what he said on a couple players as well as maybe a different strategy in terms of defending the run. But you look at the defensive ranks through four weeks and it just isn’t pretty. They’re bottom five in points per game, yards per game. They’re second worst in EPA per play, second worst in EPA per pass. You see that they are the second worst third down rate defense in the NFL. They allow their opponents to convert 51% of their third down opportunities. That simply isn’t going to cut it. And the shocking thing here with this defense is that they are 25th in pressure rate when most people, including myself, projected the front seven in pass rush to be the strongest point of this football team. Changes, simply put, need to be made. What is the definition of insanity? doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Well, that’s what it would feel like if the Dolphins defense and coaching staff just continues to do the same thing week in week out expecting different results because we’ve seen through three week or four weeks. Nothing is going to change unless they bring different personnel, different stylistic ideas because what they did in the first month simply is not acceptable. Make sure you’re subscribed and make sure you have your notifications turned on. We have 76,000 29 subscribers. Yet only 10.4,000 aka 13.7% have their notifications turned on. We put out two videos a day, live three times a week. So, hit that sub button and make sure you have the notifications turned on so you don’t miss any content we put out. Well, I want to go back one week here. Anthony Weaver went kind of viral for a quote before that Monday Night Football game against the Jets. Asked about the physicality of the defense. Well, he said, “At some point, it comes down to changing the math through violence. I need you to do more than your job. I need you to whip that guy’s ass in front of you.” And that went viral as terms of the mentality and aggressiveness from Anthony Weaver. And I think the defense responded relatively well. Yes, it was against the Jets offense who is pretty much bottom five in the NFL in its own right, but they performed decent. Yes, they gave up a ton of yards, but they also were able to force three takeaways, something they did not do in the first three weeks of the year. They were one of two teams going into week four in Monday Night Football without a takeaway. They changed that by getting three of them. But the point I’m trying to make here specifically, and we’ll get to the changes and why they need to be made, is how bad this run defense has been. And I I really feel like I’m beating a dead horse here, but it’s just so appalling to me because like I like to think I know a little bit about football. I like to think I can analyze the game pretty well and I hope you guys believe that as well, and it’s why you guys come here for daily content. But the point that I was going to make here is that this defense was supposed to be so strong up the middle and on the line and they have just been blown off the ball and unable to generate pressure through the first four weeks of the year. I mean, you look specifically at the run defense, 30th in yards per game, 29th in yards per play, 28th in EPA per rush, 31st in yards before contact per attempt. Now, they actually have done a relatively fine job bringing down the ball carrier. There hasn’t been that many missed tackles in extended plays. You see, they’re ranked in the top half in the NFL in yards after contact per attempt. The point I’m trying to make with showing this right here and specifically yards before contact is that they have been getting blown off of the ball consistently. Grant, Cer, Chub, Phillips, Chop, Judon, Bonito Jones, like they are not blowing up plays. Instead, they are getting blown up, which is allowing these opposing running backs to get two, three yards down the field on average before they’re contacted by the first Dolphins defender. That is simply unacceptable. And Anthony Weaver knows this. He’s not stupid. And he said it today. I expect people to try to run the ball on us until we prove we can stop it. That is what they’re going to do. We saw it with the Jets. Justin Fields isn’t really a good thrower of the football to begin with, but they really tried to run the ball early in that game, and they only had to change their strategy after Miami took a two-score lead in the first half and then maintain that two touchdown lead pretty much the entire second half. Like, we need to be better defending the run. And this defensive front is just getting pushed back too often. It’s creating wide openen running lanes for opposing teams. And you simply will not have success if your opposing running back is able to get two, three yards down the field before they’re contacted consistently on every single play. That can’t happen. And part of the reason for the struggles is that your rookie 13th overall pick, Kenneth Grant, has been non-existent. I mean, we drafted him with the idea that he was going to come in and be an impact above average rotational guy instantly. Did I project him to be a starter? I didn’t. I said, “Your starting defensive tackle duo would be Zack Cer and Bonito Jones with Grant working in as that third guy.” Well, because of injuries and because of different issues on the defensive line, Grant has gotten a lot more playing time, but he really hasn’t been able to pay off the decision by this front office to draft him in the first round through the first month of the year. And I know it’s very early in his career, but he is a bottom five graded defensive lineman in all of football. I mean, his PFF grade is 35.7. We have our first two picks in this year’s draft. Kenneth Grant at 13 and Jonas Savinayia in round two are last and bottom five in their respective positions on PFF. And look at his run defense 30. That is unacceptable. And we could go back a year. Chop Robinson, the first round pick for Miami, got off to a really slow start the first eight weeks of the season. And then in the last 10 weeks, he turned it on and was a top five edge rusher in football. Yes. You can make that point, but I’ll also make the point this. Kenneth Grant was labeled as more of an impact guy right away than Chop. Most people knew Chop was going to have to develop. And with Grant, there was more of an expectation he was going to be able to contribute sooner rather than later. And that’s why I expected more early from him. And it’s kind of why I’m disappointed that we have not seen more from Kenneth Grant at this point in the season. pin comment on today’s show. Do you agree with me? Have you been disappointed with the first round pick Kenneth Grant? Type Y for yes. Type N for no. I certainly have. Let me know your thoughts. Well, there has been a large conversation about the rookie. By the way, Weaver recognized that a technique and fundamental issue. KG has tremendous talent, but until we match that talent with technique and fundamentals, it won’t be reached. I understand the expectations with Grant. Nobody puts more pressure on himself than him. Let’s not judge him after four games. He’s going to be a good player because of work ethics and want to. You’ve got to allow that maturation to occur. And I get it. I really do. Like, you have to let him develop. You have to let him get reps and learn the techniques and fundamentals required to be an impactful guy. But as long as he continues to play this poorly, it’s going to be hard to justify throwing them out there every single Sunday because your run defense is still going to get absolutely abused every Sunday and you are going to make the argument, well, him getting manhandled every single game, is that actually a potential detriment to his development because he will just lose confidence in himself so quickly into his career? It’s a tough thing to try to balance. I’ll also mention this. I think Matthew Butler deserves more time and this is a potential change that could come to the forefront. Am I saying bench Kenneth Grant completely? Absolutely not. But he has the second most snaps on this defensive line. Should we limit that and take away 5 10% of his snaps to give Matthew Butler more of a chance? Because he has only played in 75 snaps this year. He played the most snaps of a game this season this past Monday against the Jets and he has been very good. He was actually the highest graded defender for the Miami Dolphins in week two against the New England Patriots. Limited snap count, but he performed very well. His PFF grades, they’re better than um Kenneth Grant. And he has made a couple more plays in the run game than KG. Like I am not advocating for Kenneth Grant to be completely benched in favor of Matthew Butler, but I do believe something has to change for Miami and I think it could ultimately lead to a higher snap count for Matthew Butler and maybe a lower snap count for Kenneth Graham. And I think once again, Anthony Weaver recognizes this and he mentioned that maybe they have to start run blitzing rather than when we always talk about blitzing and going after the quarterback on passes. Well, you can also send a blitz on projected run plays and send six guys to try to blow up a play and make a tackle behind the line of scrimmage. So Weaver said that maybe he’s been forced into run blitzing more this year and maybe more run blitzes will be called going forward against teams that we know like to run the football. More coming up here in a second, but download the Prize Pix app. This episode is brought to you by Prize Pix. You and I make decisions every single day. Well, the right decisions can get you paid on Prize Pix where it’s good to be right. Prize picks the only app that offers stacks, meaning you can c pick the same player up to three times in the same lineup. Want to pick more than Devon Achan receptions, receiving yards, rushing yards? 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Well, another change that I could see happening here and one that I will advocate for is seeing more Chop Robinson, and I know this is something that I would have not expected to say going into the year, and you would probably all agree with me at home, but he simply has not been on the field for the Dolphins defensively that often. I mean, he played 30 snap, seven snaps in week one against the Colts, but over the last three weeks, those snap numbers have jumped off of a cliff, 24, 22, and 22. And I know he suffered a slight knee injury in week two against New England in that second half, that limited snap count, and may have limited his snap count in week three against the Bills on Thursday Night Football. short week as well. But him having a week and a half off between week three and still only logging 22 snaps against the Jets was a little intriguing to me and I really didn’t understand why Chop wasn’t on the field that often. Well, a lot of the media members in Miami realized and picked up on this as well and asked Anthony Weaver about it. He said the limited snaps are in part because of the new edge rushers and the new edge and linebacker coach getting a feel for their rotations. I get it. That’s understandable. But to me, this is unacceptable. You look at the top four edge snap counts for Miami. Jaylen Phillips, rightfully so, cuz he’s been the best one for you this year in terms of rushing the passer as well as setting the edge and stopping the run, has gotten the most snaps at 170. But Bradley Chub is at 165. Chop is at 105 and Judon is at 86. I mean, I’m sorry. Listen, Chub is a veteran. He’s been around the block and he’s done a lot of good things in his career. There is just no way you can justify to me that Miami should be playing Bradley Chub 60 more snaps than Chop Robinson through four weeks of the season. Do I think Chop should be playing 165 and Chub should be at 105? No. But do I think they should be even? Absolutely. Like I would love to see Chop and Chub have the same snap counts. Literally just give 30 to Chop and 30 from Bradley. So if you were to have my perfect thing, Judon with his 85 snap count, good with me. But you have Jaylen at 170 and why can’t we have 80 or 135 for both Chub and Cha? Like you drafted this guy in the first round last year. Yeah, he has struggled defending the run at times, but he was a dynamic pass rusher a year ago. We have not seen it this year. Maybe it’s because of the injury. Maybe it’s because he has not been on the field as much as we would have expected. There’s a lot of different reasons, but I just don’t know why he’s not playing more. I hope this changes. I know we’re talking mostly about defensive changes today, but I did want to mention one offensive change before we got out of here on today’s show. Miami started Cole Strange at right guard in Monday Night Football against the Jets and it seems like that is going to continue here for week five against the Panthers. Frank Smith, the offensive coordinator, said that he has the movement ability in the run game that for us is a good fit to our system. He showed it Monday. Everything is not always perfect, but there were a lot of promising things from his technique. And when I watched the film, I didn’t hate what I saw. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. He still got beat a ton in pass protection, but he was significantly better than what the Dolphins have thrown out there at right guard in the running game. Comparing him to players like Keon Smith and Daniel Brunskll who got abused in weeks two in week three, Strange was a nice improvement in week four. I’m not going to act like it’s perfect. Like I said, it’s not. But Brunkull and Keon Smith were abysmal in the weeks prior. I liked putting in Cole Strange and I think he provided immediate return for the Dolphins coaching staff for getting him in there right away. But I will make note hopefully we only have to talk about Cole Strange one more week because James Daniels is eligible to return in NFL week six. Remember he was placed on IR prior to week two, week two, week three, week four, and then this Sunday, week five is those four weeks that he misses. Hopefully that’s the case. James Daniels, the three-year $24 million contract Miami signed him to are back on the football field in Miami at home in week six against the Chargers. That’s the goal. and we’ll have you updated on if that is the case and how he progresses back from injury and when the Dolphins inevitably activate him off IR, whether it’s next week, whether it’s the week after, which is why you subscribe and make sure you have your notifications turned on so when we do drop that news and video and content, you don’t miss it at all. [Music]

Dolphins vs. Panthers will be a big test for the Dolphins defense who have not performed well through the first 4 weeks of the 2025 NFL season! Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS and use code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Could Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver be making some major changes to the Dolphins Defense? Kenneth Grant has struggled after being taken in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, while Matthew Butler is someone who has earned more playing time. With the Chuba Hubbard injury, the Dolphins defense MUST step up this week! Dolphins Today host Nic Rohloff discusses the changes the Dolphins defense must make before Dolphins vs. Panthers!

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Dolphins DC Anthony Weaver on Kenneth Grant:
“A technique and fundamental issue. KG has tremendous talent, but until we match that talent with technique and fundamentals, it won’t be reached. I understand the expectations [with Grant]. Nobody puts more pressure on himself than him. Let’s not judge him after four games. He’s going to be a good player because of work ethics and want to. You’ve got to allow that maturation to occur.”

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– Dolphins vs. Panthers Preview, Injury Report, Prediction, Storm Duck, Chuba Hubbard | NFL Week 5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht5GVAU9x1A
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– Miami Dolphins Get GREAT NEWS Following NFL Week 4 Despite The Tyreek Hill Injury – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PiCTZ8PXBo

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Miami Dolphins coaching staff:
Head Coach: Mike McDaniel
Defensive Coordinator: Anthony Weaver
Special Teams Coach: Craig Aukerman
Offensive Coordinator: Frank Smith

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