Now let’s discuss offensive lines. Once more.
Apart from quarterback, there is arguably no more contentious issue surrounding the Miami Dolphins. or, more recently, head coach.
In any event, because training camp is just a few weeks away, now is a good moment to talk about what we’ve seen from the offensive line, one of the Dolphins’ greatest unanswered questions in the past 20 years.
General manager Chris Grier famously gave in a few months back and declared that the Dolphins should make an offensive line investment. This came months after Grier made the well-known statement that he and coach Mike McDaniel would occasionally laugh at the way the media worried about the offensive line.
Let’s talk about the offensive line honestly.
The Dolphins’ offensive line is still in doubt, which is the top fact.
The offensive line is the second reality. Its growth and development, as well as its successes and failures, are likely the best indicators of how offensive line designers Griffin and McDaniel have managed this organization’s football program over their tenure.
It’s really alarming.
The Dolphins’ 2025 offensive line’s greatest chance is for the starters to remain healthy, as the reserves are at their lowest point since the Grier-McDaniel period.
The offensive line has a chance to be respectable if the expected starting lineup, which consists of tackles Austin Jackson and Patrick Paul, guards James Daniels and Jonah Savaiinaea, and center Aaron Brewer, is healthy.
However, the future becomes uncertain if it doesn’t develop or if one of them is injured for four to six weeks.
And for someone who publicly states that the offensive line is my favorite group on the team, that’s difficult for me to admit.
Guard-center Liam Eichenberg, guard-tackle Kion Smith, center Andrew Meyer, guard-tackle Jackson Carman, guard-tackle Larry Borom, guard Braeden Daniels, and tackle Ryan Hayes are the main members of the offensive line backups.
When they started center Connor Williams, guards Eichenberg and Robert Hunt, and tackles Jackson and Terron Armstead in 2023, they had the best offensive line of the Grier-McDaniel period.
The offensive line in 2025 will not be nearly as strong as that group.
However, don’t give up on the 2025 team, which is led by Butch Barry, the offensive line coach and one of the staff’s more passive coaches.
This offensive line gets closer to being good if McDaniel calls a better/different game, which entails adding more physicality in the form of power running.
The offensive line will have a genuine chance to perform well if the Dolphins acquire a strong running back to run behind it.
In March, during the initial wave of free agency and prior to the draft, I wrote on this subject. My argument was that the Dolphins could either invest in the offensive line or double down on it. I wanted the Dolphins to make an investment.
In May, following planned team-building exercises and prior to minicamp, I wrote about this subject once more. One thing I saw is that the Dolphins brought in large guards Daniels and Savaiinaea, but McDaniel’s preference for skill over strength means he’ll probably call running plays that emphasize offensive line agility.
Early in the previous season, when the rushing attack was riding a three-game run of 100 yards, I gave Grier and McDaniel all credit.
However, I still believe that the offensive line isn’t yet playoff-caliber, as I stated in my May 1 assessment.
By the middle or end of the season, or perhaps by the start of the season, the offensive line might reach playoff level.
However, the architects need to put in some effort or else their offensive line and both of them will be the subject of more severe inquiries.
