Miami Dolphins Top 5 Off-Season Needs

Fix the offensive line

I know this is a no-brainer but year after year the Dolphins fail in this task. Last year everyone was thrilled with the signing of Branden Albert to take over the left side of the line and rookie Ja’Wuan James was very impressive manning the right tackle and eventually the left tackle position. On paper it seemed the Dolphins did enough to fix both guard spots as well with free agents Shelley Smith and Daryn Colledge while Jason Fox was signed to provide tackle support.

It become obvious early that Colledge would start at left guard but it also became clear that Shelley Smith was not going to handle the right guard spot. That however is now why the Dolphins failed to fix the line this year.

There isn’t a whole lot of blame this season to be placed on GM Dennis Hickey. For the most part he did very well at getting players but his vision of the offensive line early had a major impact on the teams playoff chances. You could blame Joe Philbin here as well because we don’t know if Hickey went to Philbin and said, “what do you need” and Philbin said “I’m good” or if Philbin went to Hickey and said, “I need…” and Hickey said “no”. What we do know is someone didn’t plan correctly.

The heart of this comes down to the lack of realization that Branden Albert could get hurt. Not by a knee injury or an ankle injury but by a back injury that he suffers through. The team had no contingency plan. Instead they relied on him being healthy and that a rookie could man the right. They didn’t account for James failing either. Luckily he didn’t but when Albert went down there was nothing to take James’ place. The team very easily could have signed free agent Bryant McKinnie to finish the season. McKinney played well enough last season with the Dolphins and would likely have been able to keep the left side from imploding. Conversely the team could have signed free agent Eric Winston to replace James when he moved to LT. Instead they opted to give the spot to Dallas Thomas and as a result the offensive line performance quickly deteriorated and became one of the reasons the post season was not going to happen.