Rookie Austin Jackson shines in opening Miami Dolphins loss

The Miami Dolphins started two rookie lineman on Sunday and Austin Jackson looked good.

When the Miami Dolphins started rookie left tackle Austin Jackson on Sunday and it didn’t take long for him to settle into his new role.

When the veil of secrecy was pulled off the Miami Dolphins training camp and we finally got to see a depth chart, Austin Jackson and Solomon Kindley were both listed as starters. On Sunday, they both got their first NFL action and frankly, they played well.

Jackson was hard to miss at the left tackle position. He held his own against a stout Patriot defense and only had a few mental errors. The good news is that he recovered rather well. Jackson missed a couple of blocks on the outside when he didn’t get his footwork right and found himself reaching for the defender.

While it didn’t help the running game when those mistakes were made, his pass blocking was at an NFL level. The entire Dolphins offensive line looked good in pass coverage and Ryan Fitzpatrick wasn’t under constant pressure. The offensive line gave up only one sack on the day.

On one particular play, Kindley pulled to the left but confusion on Jackson’s part let the outside rusher go and Kindley got caught up in the middle when Ereck Flowers was pushed back off the line.

The rookies played well on Sunday and that is promising moving forward. The offensive line as a whole need to do better in the run game but against a very good Patriot defense they played well for a unit that hasn’t had much work together and played in their first game of any kind since last year.

On the day, the Dolphins rushed for a combined 87 yards which is not good statistically. Four players ran the ball including Fitzpatrick five times for 18 yards. Myles Gaskin was the leading rusher with nine carries for 40 yards.