How and Why the Defense Has Forced Turnovers Early in Training camp

Through the first three days of Miami Dolphins training camp, one takeaway for the media has been the number of turnovers.

Miami’s defense has been opportunistic around the football, forcing punch-out fumbles and grabbing interceptions.

Coach Jeff Hafley was asked about this before practice Sunday, and began his answer with a focus that applies to one of his top rookies.

“Punching the ball… you got to drill it. And then I think there's some guys that are really instinctive, like we just talked about Jacob.”

Jacob Rodriguez

Jacob Rodriguez, Miami’s second-round pick linebacker out of Texas Tech, has a knack for the punch-out. In his senior year, he led the Big 12 Conference with seven forced fumbles, and continued to make similar plays during Senior Bowl practices in January.

That instinctiveness seems to have transferred over through three days of camp, as Rodriguez forced a fumble on the newly extended De’Von Achane, and showcased his range on a pass breakup that was posted on the Dolphins’ social pages.

Hafley cited the former when asked about Rodriguez’s performance to begin camp: “He's got a really good knack for getting the ball out… He's got a really good feel and he's got really good timing and very instinctual. I mean, Achane, there was one, I think a couple practices ago where Achane actually had two hands on the ball and Jacob came in and it was a violent punch and the ball came out. I think Achane even kind of smacked him on the back and was like ‘that was a heck of a punch.' "

It’s that kind of focus and timing that Miami drills into defensive players during practice. Hafley said that the first two minutes of individuals are specifically dedicated to attacking the football.

Zone Coverage

Hafley also cited a key aspect of his scheme when speaking to the number of turnovers Miami has accumulated. “We're playing a lot of man coverage, but we're playing a lot of zone coverage. A lot of times when you play zone coverage and your eyes are all on the quarterback, you have a better chance for takeaways.”

Zone coverage was one of Hafley’s staples in Green Bay. According to Sharp Football Analysis, the Packers used zone on 78.4 percent of their defensive plays in 2025, coming in at the seventh-highest rate in the NFL.

That unit, however, grabbed only seven interceptions, and forced only eight fumbles last season. Those were the fifth and second worst marks in football, respectively, which brings us to Hafley’s next point.

“I think everything goes into that…then it's year to year, you know? I mean, I've been around teams that have been in the top five and then years I've done even more, you aren't. …Sometimes the ball bounces a funny way.”

This seems to have been the case for Hafley during his two Green Bay seasons. While the aforementioned 2025 placed the Packers near the bottom of the NFL in takeaways, the opposite was true in the previous year, where they forced a fourth-best 31 turnovers.

The fact of the matter is, because turnovers happen on a play-to-play basis, they’re oftentimes the result of opportunism, solely due to how few of them there are over the course of an NFL game.

Even with this, however, they’re one of the biggest momentum-swinging plays in the sport, and Jeff Hafley’s defense has been good at generating them to start off training camp.

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