Pre camp look at the Miami Dolphins offensive line
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins may have the best offensive line since the days of Richie Incognito manned the left guard position for the Dolphins.
When it comes to the Dolphins offensive line, it has been a mosh pit of band-aids and patches that haven’t worked as a whole. Miami’s consistency along the offensive line for the past decade is really their inconsistency. Even when the Dolphins got it right, Laremy Tunsil, the football Gods pointed their fingers and gave the Dolphins an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Now here we are with another season in front of us and questions about the Dolphins rushing attack and quarterback protection. Naturally, we look to the offensive line, point our fingers, and say “it’s on you!”.
On paper, the Dolphins should be much better than last year that had no offseason, no preseason, strict in-season practice rules, and three offensive linemen than were playing their first year in the NFL. It’s not an excuse because it’s the truth.
Will the three rookies from last year make a big jump in 2021? Maybe, they should, but will they? What the Dolphins will have is competition across the line and a lot of youth with something to prove.
This year the Dolphins traded up for Liam Eichenberg of Notre Dame. In a video that the Dolphins released on social media, Eichenberg said he had hoped the Dolphins would draft him that Miami was where he wanted to play. He credited the coaching staff at the Senior Bowl for making him like the Dolphins as a destination.
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Eichenberg will compete with several offensive linemen for a role on the team. The Dolphins have Robert Hunt, Solomon Kindley, and Austin Jackson returning. They also added D.J. Fluker for depth, drafted Larnel Coleman in round 7, added Robert Jones on a fully guaranteed undrafted free agent contract, and we still have Michael Dieter who is still developing.
Add into the equation veteran Jesse Davis and center Matt Skura and the Dolphins have quality depth and enough players to truly make the competition for the starting job work in the Dolphins favors. Competition makes players better and unlike years past, it has pretty much been a foregone conclusion who would start and who needed time. This camp may not be like that.
If there is a positive note to all of this it is that for the first time in maybe a decade, the Dolphins have young players to develop along the offensive front and if they can do that, Miami will have them under contract for the foreseeable future and may have fixed the line, finally.