Matt Burke is now on the list of Dolphins Defensive Coordinators who promised to attack.
Burke is a student of Jim Swartz, who was known for defenses that attack.
With the departure of Vance Joseph to become the Head Coach of the Denver Broncos, Matt Burke the Dolphins Linebacker coach was promoted to the Head Defensive Coordinator Position for the Dolphins.
Even though the Dolphins Defense was not very good this season, Joseph was a hot commodity on the Head Coach market, and Denver didn’t waste any time locking him up.
Even though Miami did’t get the desired results from their defense, instead of looking outside the organization for a new coach, they opted to promote from within.
But, here’s the problem — ‘from within’ we have heard LOTS of talk about an attacking defense for quite some time, but it was all smoke without fire.
The last good, aggressive defense Miami had was with Mike Nolan in 2011.
And in a strange irony, like the last two D.C.’s, Burke too is from Cincinnati — so at this point the ‘doubting Thomas’ has to see it to believe it.
Most pay per head bookie service fans would say the biggest reason why Miami promoted from within was in order to keep continuity. So, instead of finding a new Defensive Coordinator that would have instituted a new defensive scheme and verbiage, the Dolphins wanted to give ‘Joseph’s defensive’ another chance.
But, how much of Joseph’s defense will carry over?
Attack, attack, attack, we’ve heard this since 2012
I get it, it’s tough for players to learn new schemes with new terminology each year, so this will at least make it easier for the returning defensive players to build on the same schemes they used this past season.
But, we are again being promised an attacking defense, what will be the excuse this time if it doesn’t come to fruition?
Joseph’s scheme, which also promised to attack, was mostly a ‘vanilla defense’ of straight zones of shell coverage playing 7-10 yards off on nearly every down.
Yes, because the secondary and linebackers started off with a talent deficit and was then decimated by injuries, it’s hard to totally blame the coaches and scheme for a defense that was better served to be a sieve.
I’ll counter that caveat with this: when the defense was whole in Week 1, the defensive scheme was the same as in Week 17, when it was beat up.
Now, a bright spot is that Burke made mention ‘that an attacking defense has been promised in the past’. So, it would appear he is hip to the b.s. that has been feed to the fans. Let’s hope he isn’t just hip, but true to his word.
To be fair, even though Miami promoted a coach from within with the defense of his predecessor, Burke is his own man and that COULD mean he will finally deliver — let me re-emphasize COULD.
So, while the best teams in the league have one thing in common: consistency in the coaching; it’s the consistency of what is good that matters. Let’s hope in the area of promising an attacking defense that Burke isn’t consistent with his predecessors…and actually delivers. Go Fins!!!