Miami Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley offered some self-awareness and detailed his plans to fix the team's lacking pass rush.
The Miami Dolphins have given up 62 points to their first two opponents, and a major reason for that has been due to the lack of pass rush. Both Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy faced little to no pressure when throwing their passes.
To the Dolphins' credit, Chop Robinson suffered a concussion ahead of Week 2 and did not make the game, but he was also not the least bit effective in Week 1. During media availability on Wednesday, head coach Jeff Hafley spoke about how he plans to fix that issue.
Having little to no pass rush makes it difficult for teams to catch their opponents, especially if they are able to run up the score. While the Raiders and 49ers may be tough teams to beat in 2026, Miami may just allow every team to do something similar if they cannot develop any pass rush.
The Dolphins also do not have a fully formed offense that can keep pace with high-scoring teams, making getting after the quarterback even more important.
Defensively, there are players who can make that happen, such as the aforementioned Robinson, linebackers Jacob Rodriguez and Jordyn Brooks, and more. The issue could be scheme, which is something that Hafley admitted to.
"I look back to my first year in Green Bay and early on we weren't generating any pressure. So we had to change and we had to evolve and we had to put guys in different positions. And it took a lot of work and we developed a lot of new stuff and a lot of new calls and we figured out – I think for any of us, we have to look at, OK, this is what we thought, this is who we have, and we're not generating pressures," Hafley said.
Hafley spoke about his first year with the Green Bay Packers, where the team was similar in not producing any sort of pressure or sacks. What he did was change or tweak things in a way that different schemes were utilized.
The Dolphins may be able to do the same thing, but it could also be hard considering the lack of established talent across the board. There are some veterans and strong players, but overall, Robinson being the only true pass rusher on the team may make this plan a bit difficult.
Hafley went on to state that he simply needs to do things differently to unearth this missing pass rush for the defense.
"I need to figure out something different to do, maybe with different players in certain spots, maybe adding a tweak or two to scheme, maybe totally changing the scheme in order to generate pressure," Hafley said.
Miami has another tough task ahead, as they are facing the surging Kansas City Cheifs on Sunday in their home opener. Patrick Mahomes remains one of the best passers in the league, despite his return from a season-ending injury.
If the Dolphins cannot produce pressure on Mahomes, he will also make life tough on the defense.
The good news for the Miami pass rush potentially taking a step is that Robinson appears to be tracking to play after his concussion, as he was a full participant in Wednesday's initial injury report.
