Dolphins Austin Jackson: Trash to starter? So says one media member

Austin Jackson has not looked very good in his time with the Miami Dolphins and maybe that is about to change for the better.

According to Omar Kelly who responded to a question about Jackson in training camp, Jackson is not only looking better than he did last season but he looks like a starter.

You can say what you want about Kelly but there are two realities, he doesn’t way what fans want to hear and he pays a lot of attention to the trench work. As he has said before, he isn’t a ball watcher.

Jackson has looked bad. He didn’t play well his rookie season and while he played marginally better after shifting to guard last year, the truth is, he wasn’t that good there either.

So what has changed? We could say Mike McDaniel’s system that uses more of a zone blocking system on the line. In reality, we could look closer at who is directing him. Matt Applebaum.

Applebaum is a quality offensive line coach with NFL experience. Last season he was with Boston College. He has respect around the league and is considered one of the better coaches at the position.

Applebaum has a lot more experience than last year’s Oline coach, Lemuel Jeanpierre. Jeanpierre made it clear that he wasn’t ready for the job last year, one of the big reasons he stuck around in 2022. He wanted to be better and learn the job. Jeanpierre also wasn’t the line coach the year before either.

In his short time with the Dolphins, Jackson and most of the other lineman who have been around since 2019 or 2020 know that Miami has been a rotating door at the coaching position. In fact, there had been four Oline coaches on Flores’ staff in three years. Applebaum should hang around a little longer.

To say the least, all of the linemen are getting new looks but Jackson is an important part of the offensive line and the Dolphins are going to be faced with a decision on his future, sooner rather than later. Hearing that he is getting better, looking better, brings hope that maybe, the Dolphins got it right. After all, they essentially traded Minkah Fitzpatrick for him.