The Miami Dolphins’ week one offensive line review

Well the Miami Dolphins walked out of New England with a week one victory. Was it a pretty win? Absolutely not, but these divisional games on the road seldom are.

Like the rest of the team, the offensive line didn’t win any style points this past weekend. There were moments when pass protection broke down or defenders were unblocked on running plays, but all in all this unit held together against a difficult week one opponent.

Each week we’ll review some advanced statistics that are good barometers for offensive line success. We’ll look at the lines performance and the Miami Dolphins rank in the NFL for each particular statistic. These are team statistics.

Passing

ATD: Average throw depth

Sack%: Percent of passing plays that resulted in a sack

Press%: Percent of passing plays where the passer was pressured

Rushing

Avg TT: Average time to throw (This is an NFL Next Gen Stat)

Rushing

YBC/Att: Yards before contact per attempt.

HAL%: Percentage of plays where runner is contacted at the line of scrimmage.

Stuffs: Plays where the ball carrier is tackled behind the line of scrimmage.

Advanced stats are courtesy of SIS Data Hub Pro

Statistics can tell us a lot, but it is also important that we provide context for these stats. While it is true that Miami ranked towards the bottom third of the league in almost all indicators of offensive line success, in many instances it isn’t all on the offensive line.

On running plays, there can be a safety crashing down on the play that drops the running back. It is likely that the offensive line wasn’t accounting for said player and can’t really be held responsible for such a play. If a running back hits the wrong hole, again, not the line’s fault.

If a passer is holding the ball too long or a team is attempting a lot of deep passes (which is why I include average throw depth in this analysis) the line can be put in a difficult situation. In this particular instance, Tua had one of the quicker times to throw in the NFL, but that doesn’t include plays in which he was sacked. He may still occasionally be contributing to bad plays by holding the ball too long.

That leads me to my next point, sometimes players just aren’t open. When facing a good secondary (like the one in New England), a quarterback may be forced to hold onto the ball to avoid throwing an interception. That pressure or sack will go on the offensive line, but it is really just a product of who you are facing.

Player Grades

We’ll be singling out each Miami Dolphins starter, discussing where they struggled and where they played well, and giving each player a grade (F-A) for their week one performance.

Liam Eichenberg | LT

This was Liam’s first NFL start and things actually went quite well for the rookie. The one loss everyone was talking about (the bull rush against Josh Uche) wasn’t really a loss. Solomon Kindley had his legs spread out too far and tripped Eichenberg on that play. A couple penalties were really the only negatives that he contributed-and they were extremely weak calls.

Eichenberg was solid in both pass protection and the running game. We really shouldn’t be surprised, this is exactly what we saw in his preseason and college snaps. The surprising part is that Brian Flores has already come out and named Austin Jackson the starting left tackle for week two against Buffalo. Hopefully he bounces back after a rough preseason, but if not Liam Eichenberg is an excellent insurance policy to have. Grade: B-

Solomon Kindley | LG

The Big Fish ended up having a pretty good game against the New England Patriots. He only surrendered one pressure and routinely got good push in the running game. This was the best game that I’ve personally seen from Solomon Kindley and that is a really encouraging sign for a second year player that started training camp buried on the depth chart. Maybe those coaches know what they’re doing after all? Grade: B-

Michael Deiter | C

This was Deiter’s first regular season game at center, and while it wasn’t perfect, it also wasn’t a train wreck. Deiter isn’t a power player and will get driven back occasionally on run plays, that’s just who he is. The surprising thing we saw were the bad reps in pass protection. While he only gave up two pressures, Miami only dropped back 29 times. This area looked to be his strength in the preseason-worth monitoring. Grade: C-

Robert Hunt | RG

Writing this is going to break my heart, but I’ll get through it. I will stay on the record that Robert Hunt is Miami’s best offensive lineman, but he was their worst on Sunday. The strangest part of all of this is that he struggled most in run blocking. He had one really embarrassing miscommunication and outside of that had a few missed blocks on running plays.

Hunt was Miami’s highest graded run blocker last year and was one of the best run blocking tackles in the entire NFL. Even good players have bad games, and I’ll trust his track record. Look for a bounce back game against Buffalo. Grade: D+

Jesse Davis | RT

I will readily admit that I have not always been the biggest supporter of Jesse Davis starting on this offensive line. I didn’t think it made sense to block the younger guys from getting on the field and I never thought that Davis was more than an average (at best) offensive lineman.

Like I stated previously, this offensive line didn’t dominate this game. There were no elite standout performances… with that said, Jesse Davis was Miami’s best offensive lineman on Sunday. He had one or two missteps in pass protection, but was impressive in the running game. One of the best blocks of the game came from Jesse Davis on a simple counter play where he completely washed out Josh Uche and gave Myles Gaskin the edge on a first down run. I love what I saw. Grade: B

Final Thoughts

Outside of Tua Tagovailoa, who has gotten more criticism than the Miami Dolphins’ offensive line? That is a rhetorical question, but the answer is no one. It isn’t like this performance is going to silence critics, there were some ugly plays in there, but this group held it together when it mattered the most. Did the Miami Dolphins score in the red zone? YES. Where they able to run out the clock at the end of the game when everyone in New England knew they were running the ball? YES.

Lets also not forget that they faced a good New England front. This isn’t a top 5 unit, but it’s easily a top 10 or 15 group that is solid and deep at every position. We still wan’t to see more as the year goes along, but this was a solid (if not spectacular) week one performance from this youthful offensive line.

For analysis and video breakdowns, follow me on Twitter @GeorgeForder3