It's Official: Weaver Coming Back for Second Season

It's now a done deal: The Miami Dolphins will not have to make a defensive coordinator change for a third consecutive offseason.

Anthony Weaver is headed for a second season in 2025 with reports Tuesday indicating that the New Orleans Saints will be hiring Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore as their new head coach.

This was anticipated for the better part of a week but couldn't be finalized until after the Super Bowl, which saw Moore help the Eagles secure their second title in eight years with their convincing 40-22 victory against the Kansas City at the Superdome in the city he now will be calling home.

The Saints chose Moore over Weaver and other candidates, including their interim head coach at the end of the 2024 season, longtime Dolphins assistant Darren Rizzi.

After retaining Josh Boyer as defensive coordinator when he became Dolphins head coach in 2022, Mike McDaniel replaced him with veteran coach Vic Fangio in 2023 and then switched to Weaver last offseason after Fangio and the Dolphins agree to a mutual parting of the ways that landed Fangio in Philadelphia.

Weaver had an in-person interview in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago after talking to team officials via Zoom.

Earlier in the offseason, he interviewed with the Chicago Bears before they hired Detroit Lions offensive coordinator (and former Dolphins assistant) Ben Johnson as their new head coach.

Weaver also interviewed for head-coaching openings last offseason and was a finalist for both the Atlanta Falcons and Washington Commanders jobs, which went to Raheem Morris and Dan Quinn, respectively.

WEAVER'S FIRST YEAR AS DOLPHINS DC

Weaver joined the Dolphins last offseason after three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens and with one year as a DC on his resume, the 2020 season with the Houston Texans.

In Weaver's first season as Dolphins DC, the team finished fourth in the NFL in total defense and 10th in points allowed — all this despite not having Bradley Chubb all season and having Jaelan Phillips for only a month.

The defense also produced the team MVP in lineman Zach Sieler.

On the flip side, the defense produced only 16 takeaways, down from 27 in 2024, and also surrendered game-winning drives against the Arizona Cardinals and Buffalo Bills in Tua Tagovailoa's first two games back from injured reserve, though it should be noted those were the two games that Sieler missed because of a freaky eye injury sustained in practice.

All in all, Weaver most definitely did a solid job for the Dolphins in 2024 and now it looks like he'll get the opportunity to try to build on that next season.

THE DOLPHINS COACHING STAFF PRETTY SET

Barring any more late developments, the Dolphins will end up with two coaching changes from 2024, with Craig Aukerman replacing Danny Crossman as special teams coordinator and Robert Prince taking over for Wes Welker as wide receivers coach.

QB coach Darrell Bevell was viewed as a strong candidate to rejoin Pete Carroll and become offensive coordinator, but former Eagles and 49ers head coach Chip Kelly was hired instead after helping Ohio State win the national title this past season.

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