Miami Dolphins week one watch: Jamil Douglas

When the Miami Dolphins line up against the Washington Redskins on Sunday one player to watch will be rookie right guard Jamil Douglas. Douglas will play an integral part in this weeks success, or failure. The 4th round pick made enough of an impression to leap frog 2nd year guard Billy Turner in the final two weeks of camp and pre-season. Now it’s for real.

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Mental errors. Douglas hasn’t made all that many through camp and that is one of the reasons he is starting over Turner. From late June when the team took to the practice field, Douglas saw reps with the first team. Those reps however came at the left guard position and not the right. As practices continued, Douglas got more and more time on both sides of center. It was only a question of who would start ahead of him.

Finally Douglas got the nod that he would start the season.

Washington Redskins

The Redskins have revamped a very poor defensive front from 2014. They have added a new defensive end, Stephen Paea and big nose tackle in Terrance Knighton. At first glance you would believe that neither player would be lined up on Douglas however that won’t exactly be true.

For starters, the Redskins may very well try and use Paea much like the Dolphins sometimes use Cameron Wake. Slide him inside of the right tackle for a quick release to the quarterback. If this is the case then Jamil Douglas will be on the hook to recognized that stunt and take over the blocking assignment from Ja’Wuan James.

The Redskins play a 3-4 defense with the nose tackle, Knighton, lined up over Mike Pouncey but he could slide right or left to line up over his shoulders instead. This will put more pressure on players like Dallas Thomas on the left and Douglas on the right, to recognize linebacker and safety blitzes as well as the aforementioned outside defensive end stunt.

Douglas has played well throughout camp but real NFL games are a lot different. The good news is that Douglas has shown that he is ready to take on the challenge and facing a 3-4 will give him more opportunities to read the fronts. His biggest job will be determining whether he needs to assist Pouncey or James.

One area where Douglas should excel is in the running game. With the Redskins using a 3-4 defense and Douglas’ speed off the line of scrimmage, the Dolphins should be able to box out Knighton by using Douglas coming off the guard position. A key here will be where Knighton lines up. If Knighton lines up off Mike Pouncey’s left shoulder, then Douglas will be free to move to the linebacker and that would create a running lane through the RG/C gap.

Douglas has done very well this off-season improving his run blocking.

This week is a good chance for Douglas to improve on his techniques and footwork, and gain very valuable NFL experience in a real game. Douglas is simply one player to watch this weekend.