Miami Dolphins offensive line was mixed of success and failure in 2022
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins biggest problems have started and ended with the offensive line. In 2022, it wasn’t much different. It won’t likely change.
Chris Grier is not the person to evaluate offensive line help. Truth be told, he isn’t good at that portion of his job. The best success he had was Laremy Tunsil…when he traded him to Houston for a bevy of draft picks.
Grier has tried but he has failed. Austin Jackson was not a good draft pick, Solomon Kindley didn’t last long, Liam Eichenberg is, for now, serviceable at best. He made a big splash in 2022 signing Terron Armstead but Armstead missed games, too many games, he has yet to finish an entire year and Grier knew that when he handed him a huge contract.
His best move last year was Connor Williams who didn’t miss a snap at center, by snap I mean he took them all, some of his actual snaps were not pretty but Williams proved his value to the team and earned his paycheck and more.
2022 is, like the other positions, hard to evaluate. They played o.k. given the changes they went through all year long. The only two players that succeeded all year were Robert Hunt and Williams. Right tackle, left guard, and left tackle were manned by several players throughout the season.
Will 2023 be any different? Will Chris Grier finally make a move to shore up the line play that can’t protect Tua, can’t open consistent running games, and can’t stay healthy? Probably not. Grier has said he still believes that Eichenberg can be a good lineman. That implies he is likely to stick with him.
That’s fine because Eichenberg wasn’t bad when Armstead was coaching him up on the left side but the Dolphins desperately need to find a better option on the right side because Austin Jackson is not it.
With all the money that Miami has tied up in other positions, there simply isn’t enough to make a big impact along the offensive line, and Grier, aside from Armstead and Williams, hasn’t really invested in the other positions and that doesn’t seem like something that will change.
Miami fired Matt Applebaum after one season as the team’s offensive line coach and will now hire its 9th coach in 10 years at that position. The Dolphins are banking on coaching as the problem but in reality, it’s a combination of both talent and coaching.