Coaching staff game-planning around lack of depth in secondary

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
With injuries mounting and young guys being called upon to step up in the Miami Dolphins secondary, the coaching staff is working to game-plan around these areas of weakness. Joe Philbin explained what goes on when trying to decide what to do in situations like this.

“Everything is game plan oriented. Everything we do is one week at a time and we look at how we can best utilize our players in each particular game in whatever package that may be, whether it be five DB’s (defensive backs) one week, six DB’s one week or a combination of D-Line (defensive line) and linebackers. Everything is game plan specific. We’ll see how it goes this week.”

Jamar Taylor is one guy who was called upon against the Bills to step up and he did just that. Philbin said that he's encouraged by his progress and is looking forward to his continued development.

“He’s a developing player. I think I used the term his play speed was good for a guy that had his first full start. He played decisively for the most part. I thought his fundamentals were good. I liked the ways our DB’s (defensive backs) played. Not perfect, but back pedal, breaking on the ball and angles of pursuit and some of those basic things that you work on day one, I thought a lot of those things showed up relatively well the other night.”

Two other players who may be called upon to step up on Sunday will be Jalil Brown and Lowell Rose. Philbin said he has confidence in both of them and is hopeful that their practice reps will translate to game situations.

“He’s (Jalil Brown) done some good things when he’s been here. He’s been here obviously at the end of last year and then throughout training camp and he kind of battled a couple of injuries if my memory serves well. He’s a guy we think a lot of and it’s good to have him back. He obviously has familiarity with what we’re doing. He seemed like he moved around relatively well. Lowell’s kind of one of those young players that’s impressed us really first with his work ethic and his attitude, the way he approaches practice every single day. He’s kind of gotten his feet a little bit in special teams and there’s some positive signs there. He’s developing.”

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