Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver says there’s one clear solution to the team’s woes on that side of the ball so far in 2025: they simply have to toughen up.
“I’m old school — I may sit up here, I’m a nice guy. I smile, I do all those things — but all of our problems that we need to solve can be solved through violence,” Weaver told reporters Friday. “Defensive football at some point you draw a line in the sand and you say, ‘I’m going to set the edge. I’m going to stick my helmet under this guy’s chin and I’m going to set the edge. I’m going to violently take the ball away.’ And that’s what we need to do. With a steely-eyed focus, with resolve, with resiliency, and we’re going to stop people.
“I need you to whip that guy’s ass in front of you and then fall off and make a play. … We know where everybody is supposed to be and we all know that, but at some point, it’s football. It’s football, man. Defensively, they know what my expectation is, and they all have that mindset, they all want that, but now we’ve got to put it on tape.”
Through the first three weeks of the season, no team in the NFL has allowed more points or yards per drive than the Dolphins, and no team has forced fewer punts. Miami is also one of three teams that still hasn’t forced a turnover.
Getting the takeaways to start happening requires the same solution, says Weaver.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve got to say violence,” Weaver said. “If you want take anything away from somebody during the game of football, you have to do it with aggression and that’s what we need to do.”
A year ago, the Dolphins defense was a strength that fueled a rally in the second half of the year that nearly earned the team a spot in the postseason. Miami forced nine turnovers over an eight-game stretch with opponents managing only 18.1 points per game. The Dolphins won six of those eight games to even their record at 8-8 before suffering a bad loss in Week 18.
But not much about the Dolphins’ 2025 defense resembles that unit from a year ago. The entire secondary has been swapped out, rookies Kenneth Grant and Jordan Phillips are playing on the defensive line in place of veterans Calais Campbell and Da’Shawn Hand, and the pass rush is still figuring out how to reincorporate Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips, who were absent during that stretch last season due to injury.
“It’d be very easy to sit here and say, ‘Yeah, we should pick up right where we left off from a year ago,’” Weaver said. “It’s an entirely new defense … so we’re definitely going through some growing pains.”
The Dolphins can’t afford those growing pains to last much longer, though. While an 0-3 record isn’t a death sentence, it hasn’t left the team with much wiggle room either.
This article originally appeared on Dolphins Wire: Dolphins DC: ‘All our problems can be solved through violence’
Reporting by Adam Stites, Dolphins Wire / Dolphins Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
