How did the Dolphins fare in man versus zone coverage in 2020?
The Miami Dolphins team identity is rooted on the defensive side of the football. With a head coach boasting a defensive background and the teams aggressiveness to continue their investments on that side of the football once again in 2021, it is clear that Miami hopes to be defined by their defensive prowess and trust that crunch time will allow them to get off the field in critical spots and help win tight ball games. But with so much youth on the roster, Miami is going to need to hope for a repeat performance from last years defensive effort if theyre going to log 10+ wins once again in 2021. Miamis all around effort in coverage last season ranked near the tops in the league; regardless of what the call was. Seth Walder of ESPN shared a pair of graphics that illustrate just how successful the Dolphins were as a defensive team defending the pass last season; highlighted by this look at how well each of the NFLs 32 franchises performed according to EPA/play (expected points added per play) in both man and zone. This is how good each team was in man (x) and zone (y) coverage. NOTE THAT THIS IS FROM THE DEFENSE'S PERSPECTIVE SO NEGATIVE EPA  DOWN AND TO THE LEFT  IS BETTER pic.twitter.com/jU9I0ElheR  Seth Walder (@SethWalder) July 9, 2021  There were only three NFL franchises to log negative EPA/play (which is good!) in both man and zone looks:  The Pittsburgh Steelers  The Washington Football Team  The Los Angeles Rams  Pittsburgh finished 3rd with 19.5 points per game. The Washington Football team finished 4th with 20.6 points per game. The Los Angeles Rams were No. 1 at 18.5 points per game. It shouldnt be hard to fill in the blanks by seeing the correlation with the previously mentioned teams:  Los Angeles Rams (18.5 ppg) Baltimore Ravens (18.9 ppg) Pittsburgh Steelers (19.5 ppg) Washington Football Team (20.6 ppg) New Orleans Saints (21.1 ppg) Miami Dolphins (21.1 ppg)  And when you add all this to the dynamics of how often the Dolphins played man versus zone, you get a pretty clear picture for Miami that theres plenty of balance in this secondary and, with the changes to the roster in 2021, theres even more room to grow. Walder provided a breakdown of man versus zone frequency and which each team was better in. How often each team ran man coverage (x) by how much better they were in man than zone, in terms of EPA/P (y). So top right = ran more man, better in man than zone. Bottom right = ran more man, better in zone than man. (ESPN / Next Gen Stats) pic.twitter.com/D0RvlUr01n  Seth Walder (@SethWalder) July 9, 2021  Miami was in the top-10 in the NFL last year in frequency of man coverage, coming in at over 55% according to the graph, which Walder cites to ESPN & Next Gen Stats. All of this adds up to Miami playing nearly a 55%/45% coverage split in favor of man coverage and till ended up as one of the NFLs top coverage units in both concepts this past season, trailing Pittsburgh, Washington, Los Angeles and perhaps New Orleans (who was better in Zone EPA/play but less effective in man coverage). So if youre looking for some inspiration as to why the Dolphins will be back in the hunt again this season, this is a great place to start. Miami is poised to run it back with their defensive staff, theyve improved several positions on the defensive side of the ball and look to have more balance in the defensive front to stop the run, too.