Jelani Jenkins says that linebackers need to communicate more

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
There will always be an area on any team in the NFL that is weak and not up to par with the rest of the positions. For the Miami Dolphins in the Joe Philbin era, that position is the linebacker corps. They have been underwhelming since Philbin came to Miami and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better any time soon. In fact, the linebackers on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs were a big reason why the Chiefs’ offense slashed and dashed through the Dolphins’ defense. Jelani Jenkins pins a lot of that on communication.

“I think we just need to do a better job just overall communicating, making sure everybody is where they’re supposed to be and  just put it on our backs, and I think the linebackers want to be the leaders of the defense. We just need to focus on stopping the run. I think once we watch film, we’ll see exactly what mistakes were made, but everybody just has to be on the same page.”

However, they did also do some good things. In the second half with the Dolphins needing a big play, he combined with Randy Starks to sack Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith in the end zone.

“It was a blitz up the middle, they kind of had me blocked, I just kind of kept running my feet, I think everybody did a great job around me, that was a team effort. I think it was a big momentum play for us to put two points on the board and the offense getting the ball back. But you know we got to come out next time and stop them and I’m pretty sure that we got the ball back. We didn’t stop them so, you can’t get too high when you make a big play, you can’t get too low when you don’t make a good play so we just got to work on it.”

Unfortunately, the Dolphins didn’t do anything with that momentum and gave the ball right back to the Chiefs after failing to convert a first down. From there, as they say, the rest is history.

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