Miami Dolphins hiring Brian Duker as secondary coach

The Miami Dolphins continue to revamp the defensive side of their coaching staff in 2024.

They are hiring Detroit Lions defensive backs coach Brian Duker as secondary coach/pass game coordinator, according to an NFL Network report Saturday.

That’s the role that Renaldo Hill held in 2023 while the Dolphins defense was under previous coordinator Vic Fangio. It’s unknown what that means for Hill after one season back in Miami, where he played for three years and also had a prior coaching stint as assistant defensive backs coach in 2018.

Duker has spent the past three seasons with the Lions — last year as defensive backs coach, as safeties coach in 2022 and a defensive assistant in 2021.

Before that, he spent three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, but that’s not where he has past ties with new Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, who was hired two weeks ago after three seasons leading Ravens defensive linemen. Weaver was with the Houston Texans while Duker was in Baltimore.

Weaver and Duker, though, were on the 2015 Cleveland Browns’ coaching staff together — Weaver as defensive line coach and Duker as a defensive intern. While Weaver and Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel were together in Cleveland the year before, McDaniel was gone when Duker arrived. Duker also just missed McDaniel with the San Francisco 49ers. He was there for one season in 2016 while McDaniel was with the Atlanta Falcons and bound for San Francisco the next season, following coach Kyle Shanahan there.

In Miami, Duker will be in charge of a secondary led by Pro Bowl cornerback Jalen Ramsey and safety Jevon Holland but then has questions on the status of nearly every other defensive back in the unit heading into 2024.

Along with Weaver and now Duker, the Dolphins are also hiring new linebackers coach Joe Barry and outside linebackers coach Ryan Crow. Former linebackers coach Anthony Campanile is bound for a job with the Green Bay Packers, but previous outside linebackers coach Ryan Slowik is being retained in a position that is to be determined. Miami also has a safeties coach vacancy from Joe Kasper heading to the Philadelphia Eagles with Fangio.