Vic Fangio has stacked deck with Miami Dolphins defense

The last week has been a whirlwind of rumors, confirmations, re-confirmations and a few questionable/worrisome tweets, but ultimately, there was another confirmation.

It was re-officially announced on Thursday that Vic Fangio is, in fact, on his way to Miami to be the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator. As reported by Adam Schefter, the officially, official announcement will come after the Super Bowl, where Fangio is a consultant for the participating Philadephia Eagles.

On Friday morning, NFL Insider Albert Breer reported numbers behind what was being agreed upon, and Fangio will be the highest-paid NFL coordinator at more than $4.5 million a year on a three-year deal.

Regardless of all the speculation and social media storms, Fangio will enter Miami with a turn-key defense stock full of talent. In fact, among currently contracted Dolphin players, nine defenders were drafted into the NFL in the first or second rounds.

Most recently, Jaelan Phillips and a year prior was the young, and still project-in-making Noah Igbinoghene. Christian Wilkins was the Dolphins’ 2019 first-round selection at No. 13 overall.

Although he missed the entire 2022 season, cornerback Byron Jones was the 27th overall pick by Dallas in 2015 and was signed by Miami in 2020. It remains to be seen if Jones will be in Miami’s (and Fangio’s) plans in 2023.

2022 in-season acquisition, Bradley Chubb was 2018’s fifth overall pick to Denver, and a year after he was selected, spent three seasons in the mile-high city with Fangio.

Chubb and Fangio spent the 2019-21 seasons together, and the linebacker was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2020. When looking for past comments the former head coach made about Chubb from their days together as Broncos, Fangio had said, “This guy is a warrior and he’s going to continue to get better and better.”

It’s obvious that Fangio will install his specialty 3-4 defense in Miami, and from Chubb’s time in that scheme, Fangio said, “He’s tailor-made for us.” This said from back in 2020, Fangio added that Chubb is “a very smart football player, very coachable, very intense.”

In addition to the first-rounders, you can argue that Emmanuel Ogbah was deservingly an honorable one. He was selected as the 32nd overall pick in 2016, the first of the second round thanks to the New England Patriots losing their opening-round pick to league ruling. Be that as it may, Ogbah is a second-rounder, technically.

Jevon Holland was the 36th overall selection in the same draft as Phillips and of course wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. Holland is a player who could be on his way to Pro Bowl and perhaps All-Pro honors with a coach like Fangio and how he can deploy a safety with his skill set.

Two other home-grown Dolphins are Pro Bowl cornerback Xavien Howard, the 38th pick from 2016, and defensive lineman Raekwon Davis, who was selected 56th overall in 2020.

For good measure, if you want to throw in a few third-rounders, and those who fall within the top-75 of these drafts, linebacker Jerome Baker was the 73rd pick by Miami in 2018, and safety Brandon Jones was 70th overall in 2020.

Fangio arguably could be walking into a made hand in regard to talent with proven veterans, such as Howard, rising stars like Holland, Phillips and Wilkins, along with young players found a bit further down the process like undrafted cornerback Kader Kohou and the waiver-wire claim of the decade for Miami in defensive tackle Zach Sieler.

Fangio could even have free agents return, in which Miami has already shown interest in bringing back cornerback Nik Needham, who could be used in a variety of ways for Fangio. Needham’s slot skills aren’t even his main position, being an outside boundary corner by nature, who could even cameo as a safety in a pinch or creative scheme.

Miami will also need to decide on a slew of free-agent linebackers such as Melvin Ingram, another former first-rounder, who had a solid year for Miami. One more home-drafted player, Andrew Van Ginkel, who was under-utilized this season, is also a free agent and could be sought after by several teams who could be offering more opportunities.

Yet, with a coach like Fangio and a very thin room of linebackers heading into the offseason, Miami would be wise to negotiate accordingly with Van Ginkel, who’s also a key special teams coverage player for the Dolphins to boot.

They also have Channing Tindall, a 2022 third-round pick who was barely used at all in his rookie season. The speedy interior linebacker can be a project Fangio would love to get his work in with, as the former National Champion with the Georgia Bulldogs certainly has the ability to thrive in his system, which is needy of linebackers with his type of game.

For the previously-mentioned Igbinoghene, if there was ever a defensive coordinator to maximize and squeeze as much talent out of a player as possible, it’s Fangio, so let’s put a pin in that one for now.

Speaking of a pin, they still have free agency and the 2023 draft to add talent to the mix, and of course, we still can see more names added to Fangio’s staff in the coming weeks.

As for Fangio and his commitment to the role, he’s now both the highest-paid coordinator in the NFL, and he’s walking into a situation that clearly is “tailor-made” for him.

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Story originally appeared on Dolphins Wire