An all-time cornerback combination for the Miami Dolphins is reunited on new coach Mike McDaniel’s coaching staff.
Patrick Surtain is joining the Dolphins as a defensive assistant, according to a league source. The news on Friday, first reported by Fox Sports 640, comes days after Miami hired Surtain’s Dolphins teammate Sam Madison as cornerbacks coach and pass game specialist on Wednesday night.
Surtain and Madison formed one of the league’s greatest cornerback duos between the late 1990s and early 2000s on fierce Dolphins defenses that constantly kept the team in playoff contention.
Surtain was a three-time Pro Bowl selection and once made first-team All-Pro during his seven seasons with the Dolphins from 1998 to 2004. He had 29 interceptions during that span and added eight more in his final four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Madison was a four-time Pro Bowl selection and two-time All-Pro with the Dolphins. He had 38 career interceptions — 31 which came with Miami in nine seasons from 1997 to 2005.
Surtain was most recently the head coach at South Florida high school football powerhouse American Heritage in Plantation, where he won three state championships in six years as head coach since 2016.
Surtain’s son, Patrick Surtain II, who he coached in high school, just completed his rookie season with the Denver Broncos after an accomplished college career at Alabama. Surtain II had four interceptions as a rookie in Denver.
Surtain Sr. goes from coaching in high school straight to the NFL. In 2018, as his son was heading to Alabama, he interviewed with Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban for a spot on the coaching staff but ultimately remained with American Heritage, delivering another state title in 2020 after winning back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017.
Madison has also coached at a local high school powerhouse — St. Thomas Aquinas as defensive backs coach, where he was on the same staff as Dolphins Hall of Famer Jason Taylor — but he had an assistant coaching role with the Chiefs the past three seasons, including a Super Bowl victory in 2019.
The Dolphins still presumably have an opening for a primary defensive backs or safeties coach with Surtain on as a defensive assistant.
Madison replaced former cornerbacks coach Charles Burks, who left for an opportunity with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Madison and Surtain will have a talented Miami secondary that includes the team’s two highest-paid players in cornerbacks Xavien Howard and Byron Jones, along with an upstart young safety combination in rising second-year player Jevon Holland and Brandon Jones.
McDaniel’s offensive scheme is known to feature a fullback, and the Dolphins signed one on Friday in John Lovett, the team announced.
Lovett, who can also play tight end and H-back, last played for the Green Bay Packers in 2020. He appeared in eight games and had three carries for 6 yards while also contributing on special teams and making four tackles.
Lovett tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee midseason and then was released from the Packers in March 2021 after a failed physical.
During McDaniel’s time as both offensive coordinator and run-game coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers, fullback Kyle Juszczyk was utilized heavily and made the Pro Bowl each year they were together.
The Dolphins also announced they signed defensive end Daeshon Hall.
Hall has played in 13 NFL games, totaling six career tackles (four solo) and 1 1/2 sacks. He played in one game for the Carolina Panthers in 2017 and 12 games for the Philadelphia Eagles from 2018-19. He also has three career special teams tackles after entering the NFL as a third-round pick (77th overall) by Carolina in the 2017 draft.
