Terron Armstead realizes the Miami Dolphins offensive line is facing a crisis caused by injuries and intends to be on the field to serve as a stabilizing presence for Sunday's game against the New York Jets. The Dolphins' starting left tackle, who has been nursing a knee, quadriceps and ankle injury — all on his right leg — participated in Friday's lone practice of the week and intends to start his seventh game of the season, according to a source. Armstead missed last week's 28-27 loss to the Tennessee Titans because of the ankle injury he suffered in Miami's 45-15 win over the Washington Commanders, and even though he hasn't fully healed the Dolphins have depth challenges because of the season-ending knee injury starting center Connor Williams suffered last week, along with Liam Eichenberg (calf), Robert Hunt (hamstring) and Austin Jackson's (oblique) injuries. Hunt has been ruled out and Eichenberg's limited participation in Friday's practice hints that he's unlikely to play. During the portion of practice the media attended Friday, Eichenberg, who had his right leg placed in a walking boot earlier this week, worked exclusively with a team trainer. DOLPHINS OPTIONS AT CENTER If Eichenberg, who will be listed as questionable, doesn't play against the Jets, Miami likely will start Jonotthan Harrison or Matt Skura at center. The Dolphins signed both centers this week, and they've each been given a crash course on the Dolphins offense, playbook, technique and terminology. Lester Cotton and Robert Jones likely will handle the starting guard spots with Kion Smith serving as their backups, and it's possible that Miami would elevate Chasen Hines or Skura from the practice squad to serve as their backup if Eichenberg isn't active. Kendall Lamm will serve as the backup swing tackle, possibly filling in for Armstead or Jackson, who also had his practice participation limited because of the injury he suffered against the Titans. The return of Armstead should provide a stabilizing presence for the offensive line because Miami typically slides their protection away from the four-time Pro Bowl selection. If Harrison or Skura start Sunday's game, the Dolphins will have used 10 different starting offensive line combinations this season because of injuries.
This, above everything has klaxons sounding loudly in my head. If we survive this weekend, it'll put me in the Butch Berry fan club for life.
Man I really don’t like him, putting someone who doesn’t understand our offense in charge of our offensive line, especially going into the last four games against brutal defenses. The coach is going to make a break our season these next four games,
At this point, what other choice does he have? Either put a newcomer who at least is a center out there or move someone else to center, further stretching the OL depth? I’ll take option A.
I just keep going back to all the times everyone called Grier out about depth and. Talent on the online and he just laughed saying we’re good. Well now we’re clearly not and we’re desperate now in the most critical time of the season. I’m so tired of us always having this December flop and hoping we can slide by with 2 more wins so we win the division but I’m more and more concerned with this coming down to the last week and the NFL will make that happen so there is drama for tv ratings
I can't blame Grier when we have four starters and some of the bench injured. Teams typically keep 8-9 OL and losing half of that is not the norm. Prior to this season, the problem with his rosters was keeping three good OL, two decent starters, and three obvious backups. That left us with a couple of obvious backups starting at the end of the year. This year, we actually were prepared for anything other than our current situation.
It is desperation, we had a bad run of linemen injuries at the worst possible time. We should skate by this week but then it gets serious of the last stretch of the season.
They lost multiple guys and did well so its hard to really fault him. You can maybe fault him for Armstead but you can't lose this many starters and backups and just shake it off. Nobody has that kind of depth.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that we are experiencing league wide subpar OL play and depth issues. Most teams can’t field five quality linemen, let alone provide depth behind them.
At least Tua isn't injured and we have a chance for a run at the postseason. Contrast that with being a Jets, Chargers, Browns, Bengals or Vikings fan. Even if they make the postseason they're not going far without a QB. We just have to overcome these OL issues, get a few home playoff games, and there's no reason to think we can't take it all the way (however unlikely atm).
I have to admit I'm very nervous about this game. Tua has had some issues with bad snaps all season with both Williams and Eichenberg. It usually ends with Tua at the bottom of a pile. There's going to be issues with the exchange bringing in a guy off the couch to play center. I'd feel better with Cotton or Eichenberg sliding over and plugging in someone else at guard. I hope I'm wrong.
You think the Jets' D now is as good as Dallas' now? I mean, they lost two starters just in the game yesterday.
Tyreek Hill went out early against Tennessee. Connor Williams, too. Did you discount our performance because of it?
Sort of, because our offense scored 28 points and wasn't the reason we lost. Our defense let the Titans march down and score two TDs.
Offense scored 20. One TD was a pick 6 by the defense. Furthermore, the defense through a fumble recovery put the offense on the Tennessee 12 yard line which led to a TD. The loss was on the entire team, including the coach for not running on short yardage plays. Blame goes all around.
Also if you take use the pick 6 to take away one of the redzone failures, until the last two redzone "drives", the Dolphins were in the redzone 3 times and scored 6 points. They generally score a touchdown around 70% of the time. If they play up to their average they should have scored 17 instead of 6, and then the Titans don't have a chance to lead an impossible victory.
Yeah, that game was FUBAR by every member of the team and staff. The only remarkable thing about it is that we were in a position to win despite how horribly we played.
