Over the last three seasons the Dolphins defense has regressed each year. A major reason for this is because they have an extremely weak Linebacking corps. Actually, extremely weak is being kind, because most Miami fans would argue that it may have one of the worst group of linebackers in the entire league.
The Dolphins have not seriously addressed this unit in the draft for years, so there is no mystery as to why this group has not improved. The only defense the franchise has is that they had so many other positions of need that they could not address every position – but, that is as pathetic as it sounds. With that being said, now it is finally time that Miami spent some resources addressing this position, because there is no way the Dolphins are going to get better on defense with their current group of linebackers.
The Dolphins current starters are Koa Misi, Jelani Jenkins and Kelvin Sheppard. None of these players keeps offensive coordinators up at night. For starters, send Misi packing. In his six years with the Dolphins, he has only been healthy enough to complete one full season and that was in his rookie year. In addition, he rarely makes any game changing type plays, which is evident from his lone sack, 0 forced fumbles, 0 fumble recoveries, and 0 interceptions in the last two years. Lastly, he is going to count as $4.878 million against the 2016 salary cap, and Miami would be wise to re-invest that in one of their free agents that have preformed well, or just use the savings on a free agent linebacker.
In regards to Kelvin Sheppard, he has already been on three different teams during his 5 year NFL career, and has been very inconsistent throughout his career. Also, in his five years in the league he has a total of 3 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery and 0 interceptions. Again, this is not a player that makes game changing plays, and he is not great in either run or pass defense, so he should be the first linebacker that Miami replaces.
Jelani Jenkins is the other starting linebacker, and in 2014 he had a breakout season, with 110 tackles, 3.5 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles. Big things were expected from Jenkins in 2015, however he actually regressed this season, with only 71 tackles, 0 sacks, 1 forced fumble, and 1 fumble recovery. Jenkins has only been in the league for 3 years, and he is by far the cheapest of the three players costing only $793,172 against the cap next year. Jenkins has also flashed potential, so he deserves one more year to prove his worth. Also, if we had better linebackers playing with him, then he would most likely play better as well. He realistically is the only LB Miami has.
In the wings is Mike Hull, Neville Hewitt, and Zach Vigil. All are young with a chance to develop, and produced in games, but only Hewitt flashed quality production. While Hewitt did show he “could” end up a solid starter, his play didn’t indicate superstar. All, including Hewitt, are nice players to have on the team, but not even the best sportsbooks are betting any are certain talents that a season can be based on.
This off-season, Miami needs to finally give the linebacking position some love and find two quality starters. They desperately need to find a true middle linebacker that can be the QB of the defense and a pass rushing, strong side backer. There are still alot of holes to fill, but it wouldn’t be outside the realm of sanity to use a 1st or 2nd round pick on a starting linebacker. And if not, then the Dolphins must sign a linebacker in free agency. What are the thoughts of the rest of the Miami Dolphins News fans?
