Anthony Weaver assesses other new defensive assistants on Dolphins coaching staff
MIAMI GARDENS — Anthony Weaver as defensive coordinator is far from the only change the Miami Dolphins have made on the defensive side of the coaching staff for 2024 since their playoff elimination last month in Kansas City.
Since Weaver, previously defensive line coach and assistant head coach with the Baltimore Ravens, was brought on to replace Vic Fangio and lead the Dolphins defense, he has been involved in the addition of four other new assistant coaches on his side of the ball.
The Dolphins have hired former Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry as linebackers coach and run game coordinator; Brian Duker, spending the past three seasons with the Detroit Lions, is Miami’s new secondary coach and pass game coordinator; Ryan Crow, formerly of the Tennessee Titans was brought on as outside linebackers coach. Additionally, former Seattle Seahawks defensive back and assistant coach DeShawn Shead is a new assistant defensive backs coach.
Weaver, who could be a hot commodity for a head coaching job in 2025, touched on all the new blood on the coaching staff and how his ties to them developed over the years at Thursday’s introductory press conference.
“Joe Barry, obviously, is a tremendous football coach,” Weaver said. “Back in 2021, when I left Houston, me and Joe spent a lot of time conversing about the potential of joining up with the Chargers under Brandon Staley. That didn’t come to fruition, but through those conversations, we formed a friendship.
“Over the years, we’ve always kind of kept in touch, and then through mutual friends, I’ve obviously heard nothing but incredible things about him. So to add him to our staff with his wisdom and intellect and knowledge is a tremendous win for us as a team and then for me individually, as a guy that’s just been in it and most recently calling it.”
Barry, 53, has experience as defensive coordinator with three teams over seven different seasons. So as Weaver gets back in the coordinator ranks for the first time since his one season calling the defense in 2020, he can always lean on Barry’s familiarity with the role.
“Brian Duker, who we just hired as pass game coordinator, we worked together in Cleveland in 2014 and 2015, and then he has familiarity with the scheme that we want to run, because he was with Wink Martindale in Baltimore for a number of years, as well,” Weaver said.
It was an interesting connection since Martindale’s scheme is more aggressive than the Ravens defense under their last defensive coordinator, Mike Macdonald, who is now coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Weaver said the defense he was just under in Baltimore will be at the foundation of his philosophy, but he noted flexibility to play it different ways.
“I think he’s just a tremendous football mind, young kind of up-and-coming coach, has great ideas,” Weaver continued on Duker. “Obviously, you see his team with Detroit, they just lost in the NFC Championship game. He does a tremendous job there. I think it was a huge, huge opportunity to get him.”
Crow will handle outside linebackers, which on the Dolphins means leading the combination of Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips. But previous outside linebackers coach Ryan Slowik will remain on the staff as one of the secondary’s coaches, although Miami hasn’t yet nailed down his new title.
“Ryan Crow, you look at Tennessee’s outside ‘backers,” Weaver said, “all they did was produce and get after the quarterbacks and set dominant edges, which is exactly what we want to do here at the outside ‘backer position.”
Weaver added of Slowik: “I view Ryan (Slowik) as a tremendous asset because he’s coached on every level of the defense, so when you have that guy — one, he’s incredibly selfless, so he’s actually going to help us in the secondary as well. I really look forward to working with Ryan and trust his football acumen in general.”
Conventional wisdom leads one to believe Slowik will either snag the vacant cornerbacks coach or safeties coach role. Under those positions will be Shead, who won a Super Bowl in Seattle and was around that “Legion of Boom” secondary about a decade ago behind stellar cornerback Richard Sherman.
“Shoot, you look at Seattle and what they’ve done there, particularly at the DB position, I mean there’s a lot of good ones,” Weaver said. “I feel like when you talk to him, you can just feel the impact that he’s had on them. So he’s a younger guy, he’s got all the energy, and he can relate. You talk about ex-players being able to relate to current players and being out there talking from a vantage point of ‘I’ve done this, here’s how you can help yourself.’ He obviously provides that, too.”
Among those not returning to the defensive coaching staff, aside from Fangio, are former linebackers coach Anthony Campanile, secondary coach Renaldo Hill and cornerbacks coach Sam Madison.
“Most importantly to me, they’re all incredible football minds but, more importantly, they’re good people,” Weaver said of the newcomers. “When you’re in the midst of the season, the season is long and arduous for a reason. You’ve got to be tenacious, because it exposes the frauds. When you get to Week 13, 14, 15, 16, you better have guys you want to be in the foxhole with, and I believe everyone on this staff and everyone we’ve hired to this point are those guys.”