2015 Dolphins grades: Jamil Douglas

When the Miami Dolphins drafted Jamil Douglas in the 4th round of last years draft, they envisioned him as an early challenger to the starting job at guard. Douglas pushed Dallas Thomas and Billy Turner but his lack of experience at the NFL level hurt him.

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Jamil Douglas – center/guard

2016 salary – $654,000

Douglas was forced to move into the center role when Mike Pouncey was injured. He played a total of 529 snaps on the season between both positions. Overall Pro Football Focus rated him the 38th best center, which is really saying he was bad. His overall grade of 22 is horrendous but not as bad as his 17 grade in pass blocking which was only marginally worse than his 32 grade in run blocking.

To put it kindly, Douglas did not have a good rookie season and needs to be placed at one position and kept there. Douglas had trouble with the snaps as well contributing to two costly mistakes including a safety and snap snafu that cost the team a chance to win a game late with the Dolphins on the one yard line. While Douglas made a bad snap mistake, he rebounded the following week and had a pretty good game.

It’s that inconsistency that allows the team to believe he can develop but Douglas is a player who needs the time to adjust to this level of play. Hopefully 2016 will provide him that time as a back-up. Miami can not enter the 2016 season believing that Douglas can make the jump to a full-time starter at guard. He needs to learn that position all over again and he isn’t going to challenge Pouncey for the starting center job.

2016 grade – D

Why a “D”?

Douglas struggled all season and while he showed some potential it was far too few and in between. Had he been a veteran he would have received the same grade as Dallas Thomas. I do however think that Douglas will develop into a suitable depth option for the Dolphins but I’m not sold on him becoming a starter anytime soon without the absence of injury.

Jacques McClendon

McClendon will be a restricted free agent in 2016. He registered a total of four total snaps on the season after being cut, re-signed, cut, and re-signed again. He receives no grade.

Image note: The only image our database has of Douglas is his shoulder pad as he chases down a Buffalo Bills defender after a botched snap. He’s a rookie so doesn’t deserve the mascot treatment.