Defensive Film Grades From Miami Dolphins' 20-17 Week 1 Victory Over Jacksonville Jaguars

The Dolphins opened their home schedule with a hard-earned 20-17 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. How did they gain control down the stretch on defense? Where can this team improve most?

The Miami Dolphins didn’t make things easy on Sunday against the Jaguars — needing every second of their home opener to secure a lead and win to start the year. Things were rocky for the Dolphins on defense early on as Anthony Weaver’s scheme attempted to get the most of a new-look roster. Further complicating manners was the pitch count for star players Jaelan Phillips and Jalen Ramsey. They rose above. How did they do it?

I’ve graded the All-22 coaches’ film. Here’s what I found.

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Methodology

I am implementing a portion of the grading process used by Pro Football Focus this year to quantify player performance.

“The PFF grading system evaluates every player on every play during a football game…did the quarterback make a great throw, but it was dropped? The quarterback contributed to positive production and will receive a positive grade for that effort, even though the receiver let him down, earning a negative grade.

Each player is given a grade of -2 to +2 in 0.5 increments on a given play, with 0 generally being the average or “expected” grade. There are a few exceptions, as each position group has different rules, but those are the basics. The zero grade is essential as most plays feature many players doing their job at a reasonable, or expected, level, so not every player on every play needs to earn a positive or a negative.”

— Pro Football Focus on their grading methodology

This is where my implementation of the PFF approach ends, however. Pro Football Focus converts this scoring into a number on a 0-100 scale while factoring in the weighted value of certain types of reps for certain positions. That isn’t what I intend to produce. I’m much less interested in an “adjusted” consumable score for a player than a true reflection of their net excellent and bad contributions relative to the reps they are assigned throughout a game.

I intend to grade each game for the Dolphins this season with this approach. This will allow us to see the full scope of spectacular and game-changing plays from players, ascertain who are models of consistency, and help further amplify poor player performances by the cumulative sum and per-play average in 2024.

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Defensive Grades Vs. Jacksonville

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All-22 Coaches Film Analysis