Miami Dolphins: 3 Breakout Candidates for the 2018 NFL Season

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Torry McTyer

If you’ve watched the NFL for…well, any amount of time really, you’ve heard the old adage “offense wins games, defense wins championships”. That’s especially true of today’s pass-happy NFL. Your team isn’t going anywhere if you can’t defend the pass, and you can’t have too many good cornerbacks. The Miami Dolphins have struggled at the position at times since the departures of Sam Madison and Patrick Surtain, but it finally seems like they’ve figured it out. The position seems to be in good hands.

One of the more intriguing camp battles for the Dolphins is the second cornerback spot. Xavien Howard is seemingly entrenched as the team’s top corner. Bobby McCain is a nickel corner extraordinaire. But there’s a veritable glut of guys fighting for the starting job opposite Howard. You can make the argument that with the way the league has gone — defenses today are in their nickel or dime packages a majority of the game — that “starter” doesn’t really matter. But you best believe it matters to those guys.

From everything I’ve heard and read out of camp, it seems like Torry McTyer is the leader in the clubhouse to grab the second starter spot. If McTyer is in fact the guy, he will have beaten out second-year corner Cordrea Tankersley and converted corner Tony Lippett, who is coming off a knee injury. Tankersley played well in his rookie season, in spite of being the most targeted rookie in the NFL. McTyer getting the nod over those guys would make the 2018 Miami Dolphins 5-deep at corner and put McTyer in a great position to be one of the most talked about defenders all year.

There has been a bit of buzz in the past few days about the team bringing in Bashaud Breeland for a free-agent visit, leading some to speculate the team is unhappy with the performance of their corners. While I do like the idea of bringing a veteran presence to this young group, there’s a reason Breeland is still unsigned. If Miami stays patient with these guys and lets them develop, they could be a special unit, and McTyer can be a big part of that.

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