How Will Phins Cornerback Tandem Fare in 2020?

The Phins have over $150 million invested in cornerbacks

Throughout the offseason, the Miami Dolphins have used a ton of draft picks and salary-cap space to add more than 20 new players. One of the biggest additions Miami made was the $82 million dollar cornerback Byron Jones. Now, with Jones and Howard, the Phins have all the talent they need to stop the pass in 2020.

I admit the Jones move was a bit of a surprise because Miami already had former Pro Bowl, $75 million dollar Xavien Howard as their lockdown corner. At first glance, I felt paying a record contract for a cornerback two years in a row was a bit overkill considering Miami had plenty of other holes to fill. However, when you consider it more deeply, you can see Coach Flores’ handprints all over it.  

Coach Flores is a former Super Bowl-winning Defensive Coordinator and loves a ton of man coverage from his corners. Last year, Miami played man coverage a whopping 61% of their snaps, which was fourth-most in the NFL. Expect that to be even higher now with Jones in the mix. 

Overkill? Maybe? But since the NFL has evolved into more of a passing league, defenses can never have enough quality cover defenders, so maybe it’s just a smart move.

This blueprint is right out of the playbook of Flore’s mentor, Bill Belichick. Cornerback is one of the few positions the Patriots pay a premium for. Seems like Miami is following his winning gameplan.

Phins are building their defense around coverage not pass rush

Miami didn’t stop there and also used one of their first-round picks to select another high upside corner in Noah Igbinoghene.

BTW: he’s definitely going to need some kind of nickname, especially if he can play up to his first-round selection status… Maybe Igbo?

In drafting Igbinoghene you again see the ‘Patriots way of thinking’ again with there motto of ‘better moving on a year early than a year too late’. Even though the Dolphins have Howard signed through 2024, Miami would only take a $4.2 million cap hit in 2021 and a $2.8 million hit in 2022, if they let him go. 

Now, don’t dismiss Miami moving on from Howard early. He has had numerous knee injuries including the one that forced him to miss most of last year and even had a legal issue this offseason. Miami is very lucky he wasn’t suspended and that his knee has survived this far with so many issues. Maybe next time they won’t be so lucky? So, you can see that Miami acquired both Jones and Igbo as a safety net in case they either trade or part ways with Howard.

But, in the meantime, all this talent gives them an abundance of riches at the Cornerback position– on paper, at least.

Can Howard and Jones even remind us of Madisen and Surtain?

Regardless of how Miami handles the future, in the 2020 Season, some of the best football software providers are betting that Miami could have one of the best cornerback tandems in the league with Jones and Howard. This isn’t a longshot either because there is no denying the talent of these two players. The biggest obstacle is the health of Howard’s knee. As long as he can stay healthy, they have a shot to be elite. Maybe they could even good enough to remind Phins fans of Sam Madison and Patrick Surtain during their peak years of 1999-2004?

Miami is obviously betting big on this tandem being special considering they are paying 2 of the 3 highest cornerback contracts in the entire NFL.   If Jones and Howard live up to the hype, then Miami could very well have the best CB duo in the entire NFL. If not… ouch!!!

What are the rest of the Miami Dolphins News fans’ expectations for our CB duo this upcoming season?

NFLPA has voted for zero preseason games in 2020

Despite the NFL opting for a trimmed down preseason schedule, the NFLPA took it one step farther and voted to eliminate preseason games. While the league believes it’s their right to determine the schedule, “it’s clear that the union and the league are not on the same page with regard to the length of the preseason right now,” Garafolo said during his report on NFL NOW. The NFL is facing a ton of political and internal pressure to cancel the preseason altogether. So the league may ditch preseason games altogether.

Ouch!

Will football fans get their first glimpse of live-action in Week 1 of the Regular Season?

NFLPA laid out a potential four-stage plan
  • Physicals for all players upon reporting to camp. This would last three days.
  • Followed by 21 days of a strength and conditioning program to prepare the players’ bodies for a return to football activity.
  • Followed by OTAs with 10 days of non-contact, non-padded practices.
  • Then a 14-day stretch that’s similar to a traditional camp composed of 10 total practices with a maximum of eight padded practices.
This is more than just about Covid-19

This is and isn’t about Covid-19. Yes, safety is far more important than a game, but the players have wanted a shortened preseason for a long time. Players receive per diem pay for preseason games, which is a fraction of their Regular Season pay. This is the perfect time to ‘try out’ no preseason. Like the virtual draft where there weren’t any real disasters if players hit the ground running Week 1, maybe the future is a very limited or no preseason at all?

The players could parlay the ‘success’ of this ‘zero preseason’ into the extra game or two that the owners want in the Regular Season sans the warm-up games. Yes, it would mean extra punishment on the players’ bodies, but instead of getting per diem pay for the abuse, they’d get extra game checks instead.

The other side of the ‘no preseason’ coin

The owners are looking at massive hits to their revenue and an uncertain future for many reasons. So, they might be very motivated to keep the money generated from two preseason games. Of course, they could simply be using this situation, as the NFLPA, to set up for more Regular Season games?

But, it could be that the owners have other concerns. I’m sure though the owners are losing lots of sleep from Covid-19. NFL owners must be terrified about diminished revenue being a reality for more than just the 2020 Season. I’d bet the house with the best pay per head review sites that this is their #1 concern.

So, paying players those per diem checks and getting stadium revenue might be a better deal for the owners.

Phins couldn’t have worse conditions to test their horde of new players

Not seeing the Dolphins in preseason wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would be an extra level of adversity for this staff. The NFL has cut the preseason games to two and is also considering dropping the Training Camp rosters as well. Add in the possibility of zero preseason games and the Phins couldn’t pick a worse time to have it’s biggest draft class.

Nobody will cry for the Dolphins, though. In fact, I’m sure some are smiling and hoping for the worst. So, Flores has one option: overcome… however, it ends up. But, there’s no denying that this preseason sure does favor veteran rosters and punishes young ones.

The good news is should Miami make something of this season, they are one hell of a resilient team! Go Phins!!!

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