Josh Boyer has been fired as Dolphins defensive coordinator, the team announced Thursday, in head coach Mike McDaniel’s first major coaching change since his first season leading Miami ended.
The team also announced safeties coach Steve Gregory, outside linebackers coach Ty McKenzie and assistant linebackers coach Steve Ferentz were relieved of their duties.
“I am grateful for Josh’s contributions this year and throughout his tenure with the Dolphins,” McDaniel said in a new release “The defense made strides through the season, so coming to this decision was not easy, but ultimately I feel it is in the best long-term interests of the Miami Dolphins and the continued growth of our players and team.”
Boyer was the top holdover from Brian Flores’ coaching staff, as the franchise sought stability for a defense that spearheaded its seven-game winning streak during the second half of the 2021 season.
But a defense that was supposed to emerge as one of the league’s top units struggled at times and faced multiple injuries to key starters.
Miami’s defense regressed in multiple stats, including points allowed per game, takeaways and red zone defense.
Key players such as cornerbacks Byron Jones and Nik Needham, defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah and safety Byron Jones missed a significant portion of the season, forcing Boyer to make adjustments throughout the season.
At the team’s end-of-season news conference on Monday, McDaniel said he was proud of the way the defense and its coaching staff finished the season. However, he said he would take some to make any decision on coaching staff changes.
Boyer originally joined Flores’ staff as defensive pass game coordinator and cornerbacks coach. He was promoted to defensive coordinator before the 2020 season and had a role in unearthing undrafted gems such as Needham and Kader Kohou, who started 15 games in the regular season.
Recently, Boyer said he wouldn’t use the injuries as an excuse when he spoke to McDaniel after the season.
“It’s not like what happens if you don’t have this guy? How did you feel about this on the year? It’s just not part of the mentality,” he said in early January. “It’s really not. And we do self-scout and we study things that we’ve done well and things that we haven’t done well. But I think it’s insanity to worry about things you can’t control. I think the things that you got in front of you – and the reality of it is, our record will be what our record is and our stats will be what our stats are. That’s what it is. As a coach, as a coordinator, all you can control is the things that you have in front of you. I think that’s the way we approach it. I think anything else is wasted energy and wasted time.”
