Defensive Coordinator Kevin Coyle speaks out about his defense

Written by Matthew Cannata
Following practice on Wednesday, Kevin Coyle spoke out regarding his defense and talked about the various things they’re trying to do and the various thing’s he’s been impressed with.

“We’re always looking for different things that might help us improve both in how we do things and what we’re actually doing schematically, but thus far we’re really been focusing more on what our core things are, things that we’ve been doing, the foundation that we’ve put forth over the last couple of seasons,” Coyle said after practice Wednesday. “Really, the bottom line at the end of the day, it’s us executing our defense and not so much what the offense is doing. We believe in our scheme, we believe in trying to utilize our players’ strengths within the scheme and I think we’ll continue to do that.

Coyle says that the Dolphins have competition at every spot on the defensive side of the ball and is really excited about the secondary with the amount of depth they have.

“I think we’ve got competition at every spot basically right now,” Coyle said. “This is the deepest group I think we’ve had in all the positions, guys that as you go down the list have proven that they are capable of competing in the NFL. I think our young corners are really starting to come along. We’ve got some competition at the safety position there, in the defensive line. We’ve got some real quality depth in the younger players that we’re working with right now, and then we’ve got some young athletic linebackers.

The player that Coyle has been impressed with the most? That would be Koa Misi, who the Dolphins moved over to the middle linebacker position earlier this season while moving Dannell Ellerbe to the outside.

“I’m extremely pleased with how Koa has progressed taking on the challenge of becoming the Mike backer in the defense,” Coyle said. “There’s very few guys I’ve ever been around that have worked as hard as he has to get ready. In the building early. Coach Duff has done a phenomenal job tutoring him, working with him on an individual basis getting him ready. Koa has a real tremendous competitive nature about him. He wants to succeed. He’ll do anything he can to help the team. He’s totally unselfish in that regard. There’s always been the question of how vocal he can be; I think if you listen and you watch our entire group right now, we have better communication than we’ve had ever since we’ve been here together and he’s a big part of that. I think we’re on target with that and we’re pleased with where Koa is through five practices.” 

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