Don’t sleep on this Miami Dolphins defender as the answer to one pressing question entering training camp
Starting jobs are available all over the Miami Dolphins’ secondary. Don’t sleep on this variable deciding one of them.
Look up and down the Miami Dolphins‘ roster and all you’ll see is opportunity.
There’s starting jobs available at wide receiver, on the offensive and defensive lines, linebacker and more. The secondary in particular is looking mighty ripe for competition. First round draft choice Chris Johnson and second-year safety Dante Trader Jr. feel like the only locks of the group. But I’ll be leaning heavily into another name as training camp kicks off this week — despite minimal experience as an NFL defender. Free agent signing Zayne Anderson should be considered the favorite at Miami’s other safety spot.
Safety Zayne Anderson should be considered the favorite to start at safety for the Miami Dolphins in 2026
Anderson has just two NFL starts on defense — both take in 2024 under new Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley. He’s spent the last three seasons in total in Green Bay prior to signing with the Dolphins this offseason. And while he’s become a core special teams staple, he has never seized a prominent defensive role. The state of the roster in Miami will certainly afford him fresh opportunities, which he should be well-equipped to seize.
Opportunities weren’t easy to come by in Green Bay. But remember, the Packers signed Xavier McKinney to a big-money contract and subsequently drafted Javon Bullard and Evan Williams in the second and fourth rounds of the 2023 NFL Draft. This all happened in a two-month stretch. And to Green Bay’s credit, each one of those players has been a success story, which left little room for an underdog in Zayne Anderson to prove himself.
Ultimately, I can’t tell you a lot about Anderson as a safety. There’s less than 150 snaps on defense across five seasons. But I can tell you this with absolute certainty: he knows Jeff Hafley’s defense better than any other player on the roster. He is the only Packers defensive player to make the migration south. And that familiarity has him miles ahead of the pack (no pun intended) as training camp kicks off this week.
Ambiguity and familiarity is the key
A former undrafted rookie out of Brigham Young in 2021, Anderson played both safety and linebacker. That’s something worth monitoring as the Dolphins look to implement disguises in coverage. There are several other players who can both play some safety or linebacker on the roster, including Trader Jr. and rookie Kyle Louis. That alignment ambiguity will likely appeal to Hafley.
Not as much as his experience in the system and his ability to potentially communicate it, though. Hafley is going to need to make sure his calls and assignments are getting divvied out correctly as he installs a new scheme. Anderson can be a bridge. And for that reason, I’m betting on him being something he’s never been before for the Miami Dolphins in 2026. A starter.
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