Debating the Dolphins' Biggest Weaknesses

Probably no team did more in the offseason to upgrade its roster than the Miami Dolphins, though the flip side is that probably no team had more areas to address.

The Dolphins were busy in free agency and in the draft trying to take care of as many spots as possible, and overall did a very good job by landing players such as cornerback Byron Jones, linebacker Kyle Van Noy, running backs Jordan Howard and Matt Breida, and a whole new crew of offensive linemen led by Ereck Flowers and high draft picks Austin Jackson and Robert Hunt.

But the Dolphins remain far from a finished product, which certainly is a take from SI NFL reporter Conor Orr's list of the biggest weakness for each AFC team heading into 2020.

Here's the telling sign: It's the biggest "weakness," as in singular, but for the Dolphins — and the Dolphins only — there are two weaknesses mentioned.

Those two are the pass rush and the running back position.

"There were far too many holes on this roster for one draft to fix, but the Dolphins’ offseason was aggressive and methodical," Orr wrote. "They went from having the worst nickel backfield in football to one of the most intriguing secondaries (on paper) in the league. Running back did get better, as did pass rush, but how much better? Neither are markedly improved so as to make us believe that they will be significantly better than the 32nd best pressure team in the league or, say, the worst gap and zone running team in the league."

First off, I would take exception to giving the Dolphins more than one weakness when every other team in the AFC was only given one. Is that a suggestion the Dolphins have the worst roster in the AFC?

News flash: They don't.

For example, are we expected to believe that the Jacksonville Jaguars are weak only at cornerback? Hmm.

That having been said, let's look at the validity of calling the Dolphins running back situation and pass rush weaknesses.

At running back, you certainly could say that Howard and Breida might not rank very in terms of name recognition, but let's examine their production.

In his first four NFL seasons, Howard averaged 973 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, with a 4.3 per-carry average. Those are very good numbers.

Breida, meanwhile, averaged 634 rushing yards with a 5.0 average and a total of 14 touchdowns as a complementary back. Again, solid.

So if you want to say that the Howard-Breida running back combo is ordinary, fine, but to call it a weakness seems a stretch.

The pass rush actually would be more valid as a weakness because it was awful last year and no one with high NFL sack numbers was added.

There's hope that Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah can help the pass rush, but they had 6.5 and 5.5 sacks, respectively, last season. And there's hope for fifth-round pick Curtis Weaver because of his pass-rushing success at Boise State, but he has to prove he can translate that to the NFL.

So until proven otherwise, fine, you can call the pass rush a weakness.

Calling the running back position a weakness, though, is wrong.