MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — One of Tua Tagovailoa’s biggest “welcome to the NFL” moments as a rookie came in Denver facing Vic Fangio’s Broncos defense.
The Dolphins quarterback was roughed up for six sacks, could never get Miami’s offense going downfield, finished 11 of 20 for 83 yards and was benched for veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick in the fourth quarter of the 20-13 loss.
“I remember I was getting hit a lot,” said Tagovailoa last week at Dolphins mandatory minicamp. “I was getting confused where to go.”
Fangio’s ability to selectively blitz at the right moment, mix up coverages and shut down big plays deep presented Tagovailoa one of his greatest early challenges in the NFL.
Now, the left-handed quarterback going into his fourth season faces Fangio’s defense everyday in practice.
“They do a really good job holding shell (over the top) and being able to disguise their coverages in that sense,” Tagovailoa said. “But there’s so many nuances to what they do and how they run their defense. So many coverages. It’s not just one. There’s a knock-off of like six in just one coverage. So you’ve got to know what they’re doing, and if you don’t, they’ll make you pay.”
Like the Broncos did that cold November afternoon in Denver. And Tagovailoa was made to pay, not just with his performance, but physically, too — by current teammates. Two and a half of those six Denver sacks were courtesy of new Dolphins that were previously with Fangio in edge defenders Malik Reed and Bradley Chubb.
Fangio’s scheme, and variations of it, have become popular across the NFL. It still gave Tagovailoa fits late last season when the Dolphins offense was largely shut down in a Sunday night loss at the Los Angeles Chargers, coached by Brandon Staley, who was a Fangio protege both with the Broncos and Chicago Bears before that.
After one season where Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel was made to keep previous defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, it was the direction he wanted to go once the Boyer experiment didn’t hold up without previous coach Brian Flores’ backing.
“What defense do you want to run? Who do you want in charge of it?” McDaniel posed as questions in his thought process in pursuing Fangio. “Your mind goes straight to ‘I want the best defense we can have, I want the best defensive coordinator we can have.’ I think that has been accomplished.”
McDaniel’s mind probably went to what defense and which coordinator is most difficult for an offense to go up against, and now because of the choice of Fangio, it’s also sharpening his offense.
“A subset, unintended consequence, is that the technique with which they perform their assignments really takes advantage of poor technique offensively,” he said last week.
“All these route runners are getting this elite training because they’re getting made pay when their technique is off.
“It is so much more efficient and better for the offensive coaches when something that we emphasize doesn’t get done, and the defense makes you pay. … I want a good team. I don’t want to go out there today and have the defense dominate the offense or vice versa. I want guys trading punches, handling adversity.”
Although cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey and Xavien Howard have said that the Fangio scheme is a lot more than just zone defense, the various zone coverages are still the foundation of it.
“The teams that are capable of playing good zone defense make you earn everything and really force teams to execute and execute across the board,” McDaniel said. “You really have to get your depth (on routes), the quarterback has to be precise with his footwork so that his timing is right. His eyes, his progression, the distribution has to be correct.”
New Dolphins safeties coach Joe Kasper, who came over from the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason, summed up pretty well why this defense is so effective.
“This defense does two things: It creates turnovers and it stops explosives,” he said. “And the No. 1 way to win games in the NFL is create turnovers — or protect the ball — and stop explosives. This scheme, similar to the one we ran in Philadelphia, gives us the best chance to do those two things. To me, it’s a great fit for me as a coach. It’s a great fit for these extremely talented guys on the back end.”
