Why have the Miami Dolphins struggled so much on special teams?

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs

The Miami Dolphins have struggled quite a bit this year on special teams.According to Pro Football Focus, they have a -13.8 overall grade on returns. On kickoffs, they have an overall grade of 2.0 and on punts, they have an overall grade of -12.4. They are ranked 28 in the league on special teams and things need to improve quickly before it truly impacts the game in a key moment.

“I think there are a lot of factors that go into it. Just like we talk about the passing game, we talk about protection and spacing and timing and accuracy and decision making,” Joe Philbin said. “The kicking game, there’s a lot of it. There’s the kick, there’s coverage, there’s defeating blocks, there’s tackling, there’s spacing, there’s reading the blocking schemes. There’s a lot of things that go into it and there are things of where we are at statistically that we have some things we need to keep working on, get better at and correct. I wish I could say it was one thing.”

Earlier this week, Philbin called out Caleb Sturgis and Brandon Fields in a team meeting for their shaky performance and told them both that they need to get better. While those two individuals are by themselves on an island, one person who will help the overall unit is Dion Jordan. Philbin said that they will more than likely get him quite a few snaps on special teams on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are ranked 20th in the league in special teams so on paper and in terms of grades, they are better. We’ll see if the Dolphins can start their improvement this week on the r

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