One thing we know for certain about the Miami Dolphins is that they didn’t like anything about what they saw from their offensive line in 2019. Why else would the team come out and draft three offensive linemen and sign two more to formulate a completely new offensive line for the year 2020? With the purging of the offensive line, the Dolphins pushed their 2019 starters either off the roster or to the bench (Jesse Davis is the lone exception) — including a 2019 3rd-round rookie in Michael Deiter.
Deiter, a product of the University of Wisconsin, offered an impressive level of versatility throughout his college career; logging at least 10 starts at center, guard and tackle. But Deiter was a left guard for the Dolphins in 2019 and with horrible play around him at left tackle without Laremy Tunsil and at center with Daniel Kilgore, the rookie didn’t have very many reps to positively showcase himself.
And so Deiter went back to the bench this season. But we got to see Deiter pressed into action in Week 15 against the New England Patriots — and his play looked good enough spelling rookie guard Solomon Kindley after an injury pulled Kindley from the game. This, of course, comes after an injury to veteran OG Ereck Flowers pulled Kindley from the right side of the line to play at left guard in the first place.
But through the first two days of practice this week and with the Dolphins facing a short week, Solomon Kindley has yet to practice; meaning Deiter may be called into action to start on Saturday night against the Las Vegas Raiders if Flowers is unable to return to claim his spot at left guard.
And if Flowers and Kindley cannot go and Miami has to call upon Deiter, look for him to play well. That’s been the calling card of this football team all season long at every position. Not everyone plays the game exactly the same way, but there’s a level of preparedness that every player brings on game day this season for the Dolphins. And with the improvements to players like Nik Needham, Zach Seiler and others, there should be a strong sense of optimism that Deiter can join the club of “developed young players” this Dolphins regime has found success with.
That doesn’t mean he’ll be a starter long-term. But his versatility to play any spot on the interior should give Miami hope that their 3rd-round investment from 2019 is anything but a sunk cost.