The Dolphins Need To Rebuild The Safety Position

The Miami Dolphins have a lot of work to do this off-season to upgrade their team. I’ve written about how they need to rebuild the trenches on the offensive and defensive lines and the backup quarterback position.

The one position I feel needs a major overhaul is safety. It’s not a huge priority because games are won and lost in the trenches, and they need a reliable backup quarterback. Those are more pressing to this team, but Sunday was very frustrating for me to watch how pathetic Jordan Poyer and Jevon Holland have been this year. 

Both guys had a chance to make a tackle on the touchdown pass to Debo Samuel. Poyer came in with a shoulder injury, and Holland—I have no idea what he was doing—probably tried to strip the ball, but they both let him get in for the touchdown.

Both guys have been taking bad angles and missing tackles all season long. Poyer is finished as a player. Let’s be honest about that. It was a bad signing of a player who has clearly lost a few steps. He’s not fast enough anymore to keep up with tight ends or receivers down the seam and isn’t tackling worth a damn. I think the Dolphins should just bench him and play someone else, like rookie Patrick McMorris, to see what he can do or Elijah Campbell because I think those guys can do much better than him. 

Holland is supposed to be one of our best young defensive players. He is playing for a new big-money contract.

The Dolphins should let him walk after the season because he’s not worth it. In fact, I wonder if he is giving his best effort.

Too often this year, he has taken bad angles in the open field and missed tackles. On top of that, for a guy who wants a big play day, he doesn’t make enough plays that change the course of the game. The Dolphins should let him go after the season and don’t bother to make him an offer. They are better off without him. I don’t know what has happened to this promising young player that they took in the second round in 2021, but he is just not playing well or into the game. 

The Dolphins need to find some safeties that can roam the middle of the field on defense, aren’t afraid to hit, and have that tough mentality to make a tackle. Jordan Brooks, a couple of weeks ago, called out the team’s effort and called them soft for not making tackles, which he was right, and at the safety position, you have to have tough-minded players who aren’t afraid to stick their head in the game and make tackles. Poyer used to be that way, but not anymore. Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver sometimes uses three safeties in the game, but he doesn’t have the players to do that. If he comes back as defensive coordinator, I’m sure they are going to get more players at the safety positions to help that vision out. 

The Dolphins’ defense has played well at times this year despite not having its top pass rushers and being short on bodies in other areas. Frankly, the defense has more needs than the offense, and they need to replenish the talent in certain areas, especially the safety position.