Michael Taaffe Takes Ownership of Dolphins’ Communication Issues

Michael Taaffe Takes Ownership of Dolphins’ Communication Issues

Miami Dolphins safety Michael Taaffe has only two NFL games under his belt, but he is already getting an extensive education in what it takes to play safety at the professional level.

After playing significant snaps in each of Miami’s first two games, Taaffe spoke about his development, the Dolphins’ improved run defense against San Francisco, issues in the secondary, and the challenge that awaits Miami against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

For Taaffe, one of the biggest adjustments has been learning how to settle into games more quickly.

“I thought I did a better job of that Week 2,” Taaffe said. He explained that making an early tackle can help him find his rhythm, but he needs to learn how to reach that same level even when he isn’t immediately involved in the action.

Taaffe Embracing Physical Role in Run Defense

One noticeable improvement for Miami against the 49ers was its run defense, and Taaffe was quick to give credit to the Dolphins’ front seven.

But the game plan also required Miami’s safeties to become more involved against the run.

“They relied on us this game to be more involved as safeties to be in the run fit, and I took that challenge,” Taaffe said.

That meant playing with physicality against Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle and the rest of San Francisco’s playmakers.

“When the running back’s in the hole, go meet them and go bring that force, go bring that physicality, go bring that effort,” Taaffe said.

Taaffe views the safety position quite literally as the defense’s final safety net. When everything else breaks down, someone has to prevent a bad play from becoming a catastrophic one.

“When everything goes wrong, can you get the guy on the ground?” Taaffe said.

He believes that when the other 10 defenders handle their responsibilities, it allows him to aggressively attack his assigned gap and make plays against the run.

Dolphins Believe Their Problems Are Correctable

Miami enters its next game still searching for its first victory, but Taaffe isn’t viewing the Dolphins’ early-season struggles simply through their record.

He believes the tape tells a more detailed story.

According to Taaffe, players throughout the locker room have been willing to acknowledge when they haven’t handled their “one-eleventh” of the assignment.

“We’re this close on this play, this close on this play,” Taaffe said of what the Dolphins are seeing on film.

Miami trailed San Francisco 14-6 at halftime before the game got away from the Dolphins during the third quarter. Taaffe acknowledged that the defense needed to produce a stop and failed to do so, but he considers the fact that Miami’s mistakes are correctable to be encouraging.

“At the end of the day, it’s a really good sign to know that it’s in your control,” he said.

Taaffe Takes Responsibility for Communication Problems

Head coach Jeff Hafley identified communication in the secondary as an area Miami needs to improve.

Taaffe didn’t shy away from that criticism.

In fact, he put much of the responsibility directly on himself.

“If communication is something that we need to work on, then I look at myself in the mirror because I was out there for almost every snap,” Taaffe said.

Communication is something Taaffe considers one of his strengths, and he said Hafley and his teammates trust him because of it. That also means accepting responsibility when the standard isn’t met.

“Clearly, we didn’t communicate well enough on Sunday,” Taaffe said. “And so we got to go back to the drawing board, and we’re going to be better, and we will be better.”

Learning the NFL’s Cat-and-Mouse Game

Two games into his career, Taaffe is also discovering how different NFL offenses are from what he experienced in college.

Quarterbacks use the huddle, cadence, formation and play clock to gather information about a defense. For a young safety, understanding that cat-and-mouse game is becoming an important part of his development.

Taaffe said he’s learning to recognize how quarterbacks identify one-high and two-high looks, rotations and other defensive tells before the snap.

He’s also learning how much NFL football revolves around individual matchups.

“You have to know that guy like the back of your hand,” Taaffe said about preparing for specific opponents.

One of Taaffe’s strengths may help him considerably in that process: his memory.

He believes his ability to recall previous plays helps him recognize how an offensive coach might build off something that already worked earlier in the game.

Against Kyle Shanahan’s offense, for example, Taaffe tried to strip away the motions and formations and reduce what he was seeing to the underlying X’s and O’s.

“I like to say that I use that as an advantage,” Taaffe said of his recall.

Next Challenge: Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs

Those lessons will be particularly important this week.

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are coming to Hard Rock Stadium, giving Taaffe and Miami’s secondary another significant test.

Taaffe has spent time speaking with quarterbacks about how they view defenses, and one of his biggest takeaways is the importance of situational football. Down, distance and field position can dramatically narrow the possibilities of what an offense might do.

He’s also learned to study offensive coordinators, their coaching trees and their tendencies.

And then there are the scripted opening plays.

“The first 15 is real,” Taaffe said, explaining how offenses spend considerable time designing their opening sequence to attack anticipated defensive looks.

Against Mahomes, Taaffe already knows some of the priorities.

“He’s going to like to take it downtown. So we’ve got to secure the deep part of the field,” Taaffe said. “He’s going to use his legs. He’s going to go try to make a play and he’s going to give it to his speed guys.”

Taaffe knows the difficulty of the challenge, but his message after two games was clear.

Miami needs to concentrate on Miami.

“If we just focus on us this week and what we can do to get better and the urgency that it takes from special teams to defense to offense, then we can go out and compete with anybody,” Taaffe said.

For a young safety learning on the fly, Sunday provides another opportunity to prove it.