Miami Dolphins offensive line is not where it needs to be

The Miami Dolphins believe that the offensive line is not where they want it to be. This early in camp you shouldn’t be surprised.

Offensive line coach Jeremiah Washburn isn’t thrilled with the offensive line yet. He sais there is more work to be done and that is not atypical for the start of a training camp. In most cases for almost all NFL teams the offensive line tends to struggle at the start of camp. Here are a few reasons why.

Continuity – More often than not, players are rotated around. Even a little of that can hurt. There are always new faces and names that haven’t played together so the consistency isn’t quite there yet. In Miami’s case, those two faces belong to Josh Sitton and Daniel Kilgore.

Youth – Young players often struggle with schemes and line assignments. This could be the case with Jesse Davis.

Contact – There is no contact at practice until the full pads are on and then the NFL limits the number of practices teams can have in full pads. Without contact the offensive lineman are simply going through motions and working on footwork. Defensive lineman usually push through rather easily without the physical push back. It tends to make the o-line look bad.

Play installation – like most teams the Dolphins are implementing their playbook and they try different things. Those changes can effect an offensive line early in camp.

Washburn told the media that he wasn’t thrilled about the way they are progressing.

"(Are you pleased so far with what you’ve seen from the offensive line in the first four days of practice?) – “No; but yes, I guess? We’re not near where we need to be. I think Adam (Gase) probably said the same thing yesterday. But I do like our group. It’s a good group of guys and they’re working hard, but in terms of production, we’re not near where we need to be – protections, run game and screens. – MiamiDolphins.com"

One key is keeping the offensive line working together and the Dolphins have done that for the most part this entire off-season. It will continue to get better the more reps in practice the unit take together as well. In years past there was simply too much rotation.

"(With the chemistry that you’re trying to develop by keeping that unit together since OTAs, are you seeing progress?) – “Yes; but it’s not fast enough. You guys know that have been around, we just don’t get the time that we used to with groups. That’s not an excuse but every day is priceless for us. It’s so precious out here – a padded day – so we need to see progress. But I’ll say this, it is nice having some continuity. It really is. You guys know around here that it’s been a shuffle, even when I was here in 2016 and then in Chicago (last year) we had the same thing. It is nice having that same five start every day and hopefully we’ll see some benefits from it.”"

The Dolphins had their first padded full contact practice over the weekend and there was some improvement. It will have to continue as the Dolphins first pre-season game is only two weekends aways.