New defensive coordinator Lance Guidry will bring versatility and a new sense of optimism to the Miami defense. One of the areas that seemed to be severely lacking with the 2022 version of the Miami defense was in-game adjustments.

Here is his approach to making in-game adjustments:

"I go into the game, and I'm not really nervous because getting nervous isn't going to help the situation. So I'm kind of like wait and say, okay, what are they going to try and do to us? When you get in the game and you see it, you immediately got to start fixing the problems on the sideline. The most important thing is that you go back to your base defenses that you run because if you have a base defense, you can structurally change things and manipulate things with that, but I have to get that fixed before half. Because if I don't get it fixed before half, then in the second half, they are going to come back and do the same thing. But if I get it fixed they'll probably end up going to what you saw on film. What is there best plays? What is there best passes? What is there best runs? And that's really the stuff you worked on. That's why I think 3rd quarter is such a big quarter because I've have to have done my job already and fixing it, or at halftime I got to do a great job of fixing it. First quarter, you just don't know. Hopefully, you can put out the fires as quick as you can, but by halftime, you got to make sure that you got it stopped already or go inside, calm people down, and get those things stopped."

On judging cornerbacks:

"Everybody's got be able to recover these days. So the days of having what they call a spin-down safety, are gone. So you want a guy that can play in space, especially when you are looking at corner. The first thing you look at is what kind of cover skills does he have. Can he play in man-to-man, is he a good off guy is he a good press guy? If there is a guy that is not playing the ball downfield very well, you've got to like okay...because most of all the time you see the throws, they're going to go to the sideline on corners and they're going to go back shoulders or they're going to deep. So a guy that can't judge a ball, is going to have problems playing corner today. You try to do your due diligence by watching as many downfield throws as you can to see if they can defend the deep ball. Those two guys (Jaden Davis and Jadais Richard) are really good players. They played multiple spots, but still, it's a crap shoot. You really don't know until you know."

On bringing in Demetrius Freeney as a JUCO player:

"Junior college guys face really good players. Just depends why you are at that JUCO. Did you go there because you didn't have grades, or did you there because you didn't have the offers you wanted and maybe you switched positions? Like Freeney, was a high school quarterback, and he went to JUCO and played corner and he gets some film out there. Well, he put out some really good film. Now they played some really good wide receivers in that league, and we was able to see enough to say this a kid that really passed a freshman year. He's not a senior coming out of high school. He's a kid that's already got some experience in college so we went on him. So we feel like he can make an impact and help."

On defensive tackle depth:

"It's always good to have a really, really, really, big sucker. When you don't have him, you don't have it. You've got to create ways to make up for that. A lot of times it's through movement of your defensive line, different techniques you play. We feel like we have enough big guys we just don't have the big, big anchor. It is what it is. I think we got a good front, a lot of depth, we got some backers that can play. I'm excited. I think the D-Line is the strength of the defense, so we'll see how this thing goes. If we stay injury free, I think we have a chance to be a good defense."

On the defensive rotation during the game:

"A lot of it depends on the tempo, how fast people go. How you can get guys in and out? You want to roll your defensive lineman in there more probably so than anybody. Corners and safeties, you don't rotate them in a series, even linebackers too much. But the D-line, you want to get them on and off the field on a dead ball to try to get some fresh legs. They are always battling inside. They're bigger guys, so they get tired a little bit. It just depends on how many good players you have. How many people you feel like can play when the game is on the line? Different defenses, different places I've been, the numbers have been different. We'll find out through camp how many guys we can really depend on and how many guys we can play at each position."

On potentially cross-training cornerbacks and safeties:

"Yeah, there is. Not many corners at safety. You train your corners at nickel. You train your safeties at nickel, and if you have a guy that just plays the nickel or star, you train him at another spot. So you try to get as much depth as you can like that. But very rarely does a corner go to safety, but one that's really, really smart you may have to use him to just get through a game or whatever. You have to train in different spots for sure."

On the traits he's looking for at corner:

"You have to be able to play the deep balls downfield. There's a lot of back-shoulder throws, and that's really...you have to be able to get guys down, but you have to limit the big plays that happen downfield. I always feel like you are going to give up some big plays, but as long as you get the guys down and you start the series over, you got a chance. You can't let long throws go for touchdowns. So really, defending the outside is where the corners are going to make their money. Most of the time in the post, they have help, but on the outside, they're really by themselves. Just guys that can play the ball downfield, get their eyes back around, and be in good phase with the wide receivers."

On the players that can play both on the inside and outside on the defensive line:

"[Rueben] Bain would be a guy that plays inside and out. [Akheem] Mesidor can do it. You got different guys that got different skill sets. Leonard Taylor belongs inside. He's an inside guy. Needs to be left inside to rush the passer as well. When you go outside, you really want a guy that can still run, but it's different for those offensive tackles taking on some bigger guys. They bring a little bit more power than a normal defensive end does as a pass rusher. Then when you move those guys inside, then it's a little more athletic for the guards that they can handle. Bain and Mesidor have two different skillsets where they can rush inside and outside, and we'll use them in that way."

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