In 2019, the Miami Dolphins roster was considered paper thin — and seemingly every week brought a new injury that exposed a new weakness to the team and forced the Dolphins to play a street free agent or waiver wire addition into the fray as a starter. The rebuild of 2020 has helped to ease over those issues, however — as the Dolphins will replace approximately half of their roster this year. But, with the new players in place, which units on Miami’s roster are best off and provide the team with the most depth?
Here are the three deepest position groups on the Dolphins’ roster at this point in time.
Cornerback
Standouts include Byron Jones (former Pro Bowler), Xavien Howard (former Pro Bowler) Noah Igbinoghene (1st-round rookie), Bobby McCain (doubling at Free Safety) and Nik Needham. This doesn’t even include Eric Rowe, who was a cornerback for several seasons before converting to a coverage safety with a specialty of matching up against tight ends. The Dolphins are buying into the thought process that coverage defenders are the most important ones on the field. This group should allow them the opportunity to stand firm against even the deepest wide receiver rooms.
Interior Defensive Line
Christian Wilkins and Davon Godchaux are the obvious returning starters, but the Dolphins also added Raekwon Davis in the 2020 NFL Draft as a fringe top-50 pick to go along with promising waiver-wire addition Zach Sieler and two defensive ends in Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah that are fully capable of serving as interior pass rushers and B-gap defenders. Lawson and Ogbah will spend their fair share of time as the end man on the line of scrimmage as well; but the team’s ability to tap into them as interior defenders puts this group over the top.
Interior Offensive Line
We nearly recognized the quarterback position here with Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tua Tagovailoa and another former top-10 overall pick in Josh Rosen — but only one can play at a time and the questions regarding Tagovailoa’s health and Rosen’s 2019 struggles forced us to reconsider. Believe it or not, the Dolphins’ interior offensive line suddenly has a plethora of options. Some are unproven, others struggled in 2019 — but the team has six viable starters for three spots.
Ereck Flowers is a lock to start. He will replace Michael Deiter, who has center and guard flexibility and could push for a role at RG or center. The Dolphins also have incumbent Jesse Davis on the roster again this year, he’s another player with multiple position experience and could man the RG spot as well. Tack on three more new additions in Ted Karras (exclusively at center) and two more 2020 NFL Draft picks with potential to play at guard in Robert Hunt and Solomon Kindley.