Who Will Be The Miami Dolphins Starting Right Guard?

The Miami Dolphins are playing musical chairs again along the offensive line. With Mike Pouncey back at practice the team has a decision to make as to who will be their starting center. That has led to a decision on who will be their starting right guard.

Dallas Thomas doesn’t appear to be in the immediate mix to replace the injured Shelley Smith. According to practice reports both Samson Satele and Mike Pouncey are taking snaps at center and guard. Both players have said they are fully capable of playing the guard position but who gives the Dolphins the best chance to actually make it work?

Samson Satele is a good center but he isn’t great. Mike Pouncey is a great center but could be an even better guard. Satele could play guard but it’s unknown how effective he would actually be while there is already plenty of tape on him playing center this year alone. The logical choice would be to put Pouncey at guard, a position he loved playing in college and keeping Satele at his more natural NFL position of center. Satele already has a working relationship with his left guard partner Daryn College, why disrupt that chemistry?

It’s not clear who the Dolphins prefer where and Joe Philbin has on numerous occasions played with his offensive line line-up. At first glance it appears that Satele may be the guard as Pouncey returns to center. Honestly that is only based on internal speculation from a member of the organization I spoke to briefly and nothing more than his own opinion. It’s very likely that the players themselves don’t even know which one of them will be lining up at center and which one will line up guard.

That isn’t the way to approach your practices or your game week. Today is the teams day off which means if the coaches make a final decision today on who will start where, the players will have a walk-through the next two days in preparation for the toughest offensive team they have faced all season and while the Green Bay Packer defense is mired at or near the bottom or the leagues team defensive stats, the Dolphins offense is going to need to have themselves clicking to potentially keep pace or outpace the Packers.

It will all start up front with running lanes and pocket protection. Just once I wish the Dolphins would make a decision and stick to it and then make changes if that decision doesn’t work out. There is nothing wrong with taking a look at both players at both positions. Swap them around on Tuesday during practice, make a decision, and stick to it the rest of the week. No one will gain much by bouncing around. Hopefully whatever decision they make (who knows it could be Billy Turner) will work out this week and beyond.