MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — In the revolving door of NFL assistant coaching tenures, Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel will have yet another defensive coordinator.
The Dolphins introduced Anthony Weaver as their defensive play-caller Thursday. The 43-year-old Weaver joins the Dolphins after serving as the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive line coach the past three seasons.
“I think of coaching as like service work,” Weaver said. “I subscribe to the thought that if you work in service, you never get nervous. When I got into this coaching profession in 2010 in my mind I was, ‘I’m going to get in this because this game has been so good to me.’ And this is my opportunity to pay it forward.”
Weaver becomes the third defensive coordinator since McDaniel took over in 2022.
McDaniel retained Josh Boyer from fired coach Brian Flores’ staff to run the defense his first season. Boyer was dismissed after the season and replaced by veteran coordinator Vic Fangio.
The Dolphins allowed the seventh fewest rushing yards and 10th fewest total yards league wide but the results didn’t earn Fangio a second season.
“The whole process of it was cool for me because it started as the person and who could have the biggest impact as a person,” McDaniel said of hiring Weaver. “And in the process got to get down on some nitty gritty on some schematic football side of it that allows to build on what we’ve been good at and continue forward in 2024.”
Now it's Weaver’s turn to lift the Dolphins’ defense to the elite level that he helped guide while with the Ravens. Baltimore allowed an NFL low 280 points last season, compared to Miami’s 391 — 22nd in the league. The Ravens also had a league-high 60 sacks.
“The scheme that we used in Baltimore is extremely multiple and flexible,” Weaver said. “The foundation that we’re going to do here will be from that. But the beauty in that is a lot of things that they’ve already done here, that they’ve had success in, were very similar there. So there will be a lot of crossover teaching.”
With a 12-year NFL coaching resume, mainly overseeing the defensive line, Weaver spent four seasons on the Houston Texans’ staff before joining Baltimore. His last season with the Texans in 2020 featured a promotion to coordinator. Weaver also had stops at the New York Jets, Cleveland and Buffalo since he transitioned into coaching following a seven-year NFL playing career.
Under Fangio, who quickly was hired as the Philadelphia Eagles’ coordinator, the Dolphins finished fourth in the league in sacks with 54. By year’s end, however, the defense was a depleted unit because of season-ending injuries to pass rushing specialists Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb and linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel.
“There are multiple guys on every level of defense that you get excited about,” Weaver said. “The opportunity to come here, obviously, with a team and the success they’ve had. How do you pass on that? Mike and that offense — they’re going to put up points. That’s definitely going to happen. It’s our job to make sure that we give up less points than the other team. We plan on doing that every time we get out there.”
Free agency and salary cap restructuring also could noticeably change the Dolphins’ defense next season. Defensive lineman Christian Wilkins and Van Ginkel have expiring contracts and might end up elsewhere.
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