Given their tight 2024 salary cap situation, the Miami Dolphins were never going to be big offseason spenders on the offensive line. They gave center Aaron Brewer $10.2 million guaranteed and drafted tackle Patrick Paul in the second round, but the only other new lineman on their Week 1 roster is rookie free agent Andrew Meyer. Only eight teams are spending less on their offensive lines than the Dolphins ($32.4 million) this year. So the group that plays in Sunday’s season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars won’t be an accident. It was a conscious decision, even though Miami had the league’s second-worst pass-block win rate in 2023. 2024 Miami Dolphins Offensive Line Outlook On Thursday, Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith shed new light on the franchise’s thinking when assembling the roster six months ago. The short version? Miami had confidence that the growth it saw from its players last year would continue in 2024. “I think ultimately, it’s the makeup of the guys,” Smith said. “Their willingness to improve. You see the growth. With offensive line, a lot of the times you can immediately get stuck in currently where they’re at, as opposed to when you see growth. “Sometimes it’s gonna move at a different level than maybe a skill position where you see the immediate production. On offensive line, it might be moving in different ways. “… [It’s the] consistency of our system, consistency of the coach and just, you see guys that are hungry to get better and just they’re working together, getting more in tune to their fundamentals, how they’re gonna work together and what they’re doing. “A big part of it as you look at the entirety and then you look at now knowing that each guy everyday is gonna get better and we were very pleased with the growth we saw and then this offseason has been great when we’re looking at the group and we feel very confident in how they performed and how they’ve grown in the offseason all the way through training camp.” When people say they’re concerned about the Dolphins’ offensive line, what they’re really saying is they’re concerned about the guard play. Brewer and tackles Terron Armstead and Austin Jackson should be fine. But Liam Eichenberg (right guard) and Robert Jones (left guard) are the real question marks. Smith praised both Thursday. “You can’t say enough about him as a person, [he’s a] team guy, his willingness, his growth, man over our time here, has been tremendous,” Smith said of Eichenberg. Smith added his thoughts on Jones: “The hardest thing is like when playing offensive line is when it’s new, you’re trying to just make sure that you understand the concept of scheme and where you fit. But then as you gain the consistency and the confidence, you know, kind of, ‘OK, here’s how I need to play to be successful.’ “You can really see him understanding, right, how he needs to play to be successful, how he fits in combinations as he’s playing with different guys. So just ultimately see the confidence growing and the knowledge and understanding of where he needs to play and how he needs to play to be his best.”
Hopefully…HOPEFULLY there is something to that. I do recall how we were calling for Austin Jackson to be castrated in 2022 so he couldn’t contaminate the rest of football society but last season, AJ was the LEAST of our concerns on the line. It took a few seasons but his play last season was solid! Hopefully other players on the line have finally taken that development step. Eichenburgh has been a HUGE disappointment this far. I’d love it if this is finally his season. Until then? Here’s to holding my breath each and every offensive snap.
The line played well early last season, so I understand the confidence. We signed two OL off their couches in November, so I don't understand why we didn't opt to bring in as much starting-quality depth as possible. I'm tired of assembling the OL with a get-guys-who-are-good-enough-instead-players-who-could-all-fight-for-starting-jobs approach.
This post is crap, as usual..but gratefully hasn’t been crap posts in 6 months Get this **** outta here
I'm sure he felt the same way before last season, too. Then the oline played well, like the rest of the team, so he disappeared until the injuries started and then started posting criticizing everything once more. A good way to sniff out trolls is to see when and how they post. Disappear when the team is playing well or not playing at all, come back right before the season starts and claim everything sucks before one snap is played, and only post negative things or after a loss or poor showing. Another way to sniff one out is see who lurks and doesn't post until a bad game.
Yeah **** them type of posts, this is a season to embrace and go for it, put your own ego aside and give them this third year to show
The IL has shown signs of continual improvement since the dumpster fire of the Flores era. It isn't unreasonable to expect continued improvement. Having said that, improving from the worst OL in team history is a kiw bar, and I would prefer to be talking about whether our current OL is as good as 1962 or 1984
I think if they had stayed healthy they would have been middle of the road last season. The OL started out pretty good, but injuries derailed that.
No matter the explanation today we see that a group of grown men paid to do their job couldn't find a pocket on a pair of cargo pants, and their run blocking looks like they think the running back is supposed to run backwards.
Whew, never have I been happier to eat my own words. After a mostly poor first half it looks like they decided to show up for work today. They closed out the first half looking like they finally woke up, and came out in the second half with a chip on their shoulder and a point to make. Good job big men, damn good job.
4 of the 5 OL graded a 70 or higher overall, and those 4 also graded very highly in both run blocking and pass pro. Jones is the weak link. But keep making posts with little to no sense.
They got going in the 2nd half, 1st half was ugly. Butch Barry gives me hope, he worked magic last year!
There are new pieces who need time together in order to gel. Brewer especially hasn't been on the field or in practice for three weeks, so he definitely has rust to shake.
Man, what growth by Jackson - good thing the organization didn’t listen to the fans about him, lol. Of course, we’re right most of the time - aren’t we? (wink, wink)
