Tua Tagovailoa needs more help from the Miami Dolphins than Oline
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins offensive line has been cursed since Jonathan Martin stormed out of the teams dining room because Richie Incognito ate the last biscuit. O.k. that entire situation wasn’t funny at the time but the offensive line has been horrible.
Last year, the Dolphins line finished at or near the bottom in just about every statistical category that included run blocking, sacks, pressures, and pass protection. Say what you will about the seven game winning streak, the defense was really the force behind that elevation and while Tua was playing much better, the offensive line was not.
It will be interesting to see if Mike McDaniel can fix this unit with new Oline coach Matt Applebaum. On paper, he may be the best line coach Miami has had in a decade. Maybe. But on paper. He definitely is the best coach Miami has had in the last three years. There have been four of them.
McDaniel and Applebaum have to decide who can be molded. Austin Jackson, Solomon Kindley, Robert Hunt, Liam Eichenberg, Michael Dieter, and a few others are still really young and could do well with better coaching but at the same time, they may discover these guys are not it and if that is the case, they will need to replace them. Can they get a feel for this group before the draft? Before free agency? They need to.