How the Dolphins Can Unleash the Pass Rush

The Miami Dolphins' pass rush needs to lead the defense this season, but that didn’t happen in Week 1 against the Indianapolis Colts. 

The Dolphins recorded just one sack and eight pressures against Indianapolis. Bradley Chubb had their only sack, but the rest of the edge group — Chop Robinson, Jaelan Phillips and Matthew Judon — combined for just three pressures, all of which came from Phillips. 

So, what happened? Well, Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver thinks it’s a product of the Colts’ game plan and Miami’s struggles. 

“All credit goes to the Colts,” Weaver said. “I think they did a great job of keeping them out of predictive passing situations, which is obviously going to slow the rush. When we did have opportunities, we had self-inflicted wounds, right?”

“We jump offside on a first-and-10. We get a holding penalty on a first-and-30. We were in too many second-and-1 to 6 and third-and-1 to 4, where we didn’t really get an opportunity to just pin our ears back and go get them.” 

Weaver is referring to a play where Robinson jumped offside, leading to an easy pitch and catch for a first down on third-and-10, and Jack Jones was the one called for holding on first-and-30.

Miami Must Improve on Early Downs 

Weaver is right about losing out on those situations due to penalties, but his more critical point is about how the Colts stayed out of third-and-long. 

On the Colts’ 15 third-down attempts, only five were more than 5 yards to go for the first down. One of those came in garbage time, too. Of course, pass rushers can win in other situations, but it’s significantly harder when the quarterback doesn’t have to hold the ball long or throw the ball at all to pick up the first down. 

Indianapolis’ success rate on first and second down was 61.5% against the Dolphins, and Daniel Jones’ EPA per dropback was 0.41. The Colts were basically getting whatever they wanted on those downs, and it put the Dolphins’ pass rush at a huge disadvantage. 

To make up for this, Weaver started sending more blitzes. The Dolphins had their second-highest blitz per dropback percentage under Weaver against the Colts. Ironically, the highest percentage came in the team’s 2024 game against the Colts. 

Those blitzes were still coming in short-yardage situations, which led to some problems. We highlighted this slot cornerback blitz in our Monday film review because the Dolphins tried to ask  Ifeatu Melifonwu to cover too much ground on fourth-and-2.