Injuries and poor performances at joint practice highlight the Dolphins’ serious weakness.
The Miami Dolphins’ offensive line has been their most significant weakness under Tua Tagovailoa, whether due to injury, depth difficulties, or complete draft mistakes.
Head coach Mike McDaniel has done everything he can to disguise such deficiencies, including building an offence that gets the ball out quickly while keeping the defence on their heels and bringing in Butch Barry to strengthen the unit. It functioned wonderfully until injuries occurred.
The Dolphins lost two pro-level starters from last year’s interior line and failed to adequately replace them.
Yes, they signed Aaron Brewer to take over at centre and added several solid depth players, but none have shown to be reliable starters.
There are no issues to tackle. Austin Jackson has Tagovailoa’s blindside, Terron Armstead has his left, while Patrick Paul and Kendall Lamm are their backups. The difficulty is with the interior offensive line.
The most recent depth chart features Robert Jones at left guard, Aaron Brewer at centre, and Liam Eichenberg at right guard. What concerns Dolphins supporters is the absence of Isiah Wynn, who is expected to start at left guard. Aaron Brewer, who was recently sidelined due to an injury, has had snapping troubles and hasn’t been very impressive outside of that, while Liam Eichenberg hasn’t improved as the Dolphins had hoped.
Patrick Paul is the lone player who has impressed beat reporters with eyes on the ground. The only problem with Paul is that he will only play as a backup this season.
I had stated on X that he should move to guard this year only if that position struggles, but I was corrected since he is too tall for guard and lacks the necessary footwork. It’s just my opinion, but I’d rather have a tall player who can maintain a pass block than have Tagovailoa deal with pressure up the middle all season.
Maybe I’m just panicking too soon, but when Conor Williams and Robert Hunt were injured last year, the offence suffered substantially down the stretch. This year, the Dolphins are without those guys and have replaced one of them, who is injured.
It’s only week one of training camp, but there is cause for alarm here. The Dolphins should look into other options in the league. Throw a help-wanted sign on the door and make a move before the interior offensive line ruins the season.
What do you believe the Dolphins should do to improve their interior offensive line this season? I am all ears.
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