The Miami Dolphins have high hopes for the 2024 season, but the team’s offensive line stands out as a cause for concern — or at least to outsiders.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa say it’s not much of an issue. According to the latter, it hardly even matters who is up front.
“Brother, I get the ball out fast, so I am confident with anybody we’ve got up there,” Tagovailoa said with a laugh Monday. “I’ll tell you that. I’m confident with anybody we get out there.”
It’s a pretty fair point. In McDaniel’s quick-strike offense, Tagovailoa took an average of 2.34 seconds to throw last season — fastest in the NFL among starters. Several of the NFL’s other top quarterbacks, including Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, and Lamar Jackson, averaged more than three seconds per pass.
Thanks mostly to that lightning fast pass attack, Tagovailoa was sacked 29 times — 23rd most in the NFL. The Giants’ Daniel Jones played in just six games and still managed to get sacked more than that.
Still, the Dolphins were among the worst in the NFL at converting on fourth down in large part because their offensive line struggled to get push in short-yardage run situations. Allowing both Robert Hunt and Connor Williams to leave in free agency threatens to make that issue worse.
McDaniel says he isn’t worried about it, though.
“There’s more depth than I think people really appreciate and there’s a lot of technical growth,” McDaniel said of both the offensive and defensive lines. “For what we do, we ask guys to be technicians and commit to certain techniques that other players are depending on and trying to play off of. It’s been a really good training camp for both of those units, specifically interior.”
But it’s tough to truly believe him. With Isaiah Wynn on PUP list — where he’ll remain into the regular season — and Aaron Brewer temporarily out of action, the Dolphins may begin the season with Robert Jones, Liam Eichenberg, and Jack Driscoll starting on the interior. That’s far from an encouraging trio.
Tagovailoa’s fast, but can the Dolphins continue to make things work with a group that certainly appears subpar, at best?
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