Did The Dolphins FINALLY Fix Their Biggest Problem?

Did The Dolphins FINALLY Fix Their Biggest Problem?

[Music] I’m Nick Roloff. This is Dolphins Today by Chad Sports. The Dolphins did not have a good season last year. They had a lot of problems, but we know what their biggest problem was. The question is, did Miami fix it this off season? I believe they have and I’ll talk why. But what is that biggest problem? Without a doubt, the biggest offense or the biggest issue for the Dolphins of 2024 was their offensive line. I don’t think it’s rocket science in saying that. There was a lot of things that went wrong for Miami last season to his inability to stay healthy. the defense getting banged up, Bradley Chub never playing, but that offensive line was absolutely brutal. And to me, maybe I’m drinking the Kool-Aid, folks, but I believe that offensive line has been fixed. I do. I don’t think this is. I think this is a legit solution with what Miami did in free agency, what they did in the draft. And you even have to take it back a year ago in the 2024 NFL draft when Miami drafted an offensive lineman early in day two. And if you want the O line to be improved from a year ago, there is no reason to jinx it, hit that like button. You want the Dolphins to go from a bottom five offensive line in football, which they were a year ago, to a top half offensive line, hit that thumbs up icon. If there’s 10,000 people that watch this video, I should see 10,000 likes because there should be not one single Dolphins fan that doesn’t want to see this do O line improve from a year ago. So, let’s look at the changes that were made from one season to this season. In 2024, the center right tackle will stay the same. It will be Aaron Brewer at center, who was a top 10 center in football last season, and then Austin Jackson is going to be your right tackle. But the changes are at left guard, left tackle, and right guard. Terron Armstead retires. In comes the secondyear second round pick, Patrick Paul. You let Robert Jones go in free agency. He went to the Dallas Cowboys. You signed James Daniels in free agency to take that spot. Could play right guard, but I would play him at left guard. And then obviously Liam Mikeenberg, who has plagued this Dolphins offensive line as a starter in almost every single year of his four years in the NFL so far, is likely going to be replaced by the 38th overall pick, second round Arizona guard, Jonah Savinia. That is legit improvement from one season to the next. Aaron Brewer was awesome at center last season, so getting him as a secondyear guy, he’ll probably even be better. Austin Jackson only played about half the snaps last season due to a shoulder injury he suffered. If he stays healthy, that’s going to be a really good stronghold at right tackle. And then when you think about the improvements on the interior offensive line at left guard and right guard, that’s just absolutely massive. And it’s hard not to improve from where you were a season ago. If you look at your 2024 offensive line, they were the 27th graded O line according to Pro Football Focus with a 56th grade. Embarrassing pass block win rate. The offensive line had a 56% pass block win rate, 28th in the NFL. The run block win rate wasn’t much better. 26th in the NFL with a 70% win rate. The fact that Miami was able to go eight and nine and be somewhat competitive in their games with that bad of an offensive line is kind of remarkable. And the offensive PL line play that you got a year ago, it’s flatout unacceptable. That is embarrassing. And any team that sees their offensive line go out and perform that way should immediately do everything in their power to overhaul the O line. And that to me is exactly what Chris Greer did. Well, look at the O line as a whole. Now, if you stay healthy, this is a pretty good O line in my opinion. Like Austin Jackson, Aaron Brewer coming back is huge. James Daniels is a veteran who was absolutely terrific for Pittsburgh a year ago before suffering his injury. Jonah Savinia was widely considered one of the most versatile and best interior offensive line players that you could find in this draft. When you looked at interior offensive linemen, Saviana Booker, Gray Zable, those were the top ones and you got one of the top five guards in this draft. And then Patrick Paul is a player you invested in a year ago. You took him in the second round of the 24 draft. He got to learn under Terron Armstead. He also started three games. So, he got a perfect mixture of three starts against good competition, too, by the way. Had to go up against the Texans, Will Anderson and Denil Hunter. But he also got to learn behind arguably a top three left tackle in football in the last decade, which is Terron Armstead. I think you would really consider him top three. It’s him or probably um Trent Williams. Those are probably your two best left tackles in the last 10 years. So, I believe in Patrick Paul. I believe in Iiken or believe in Savia. Can’t believe I almost said Iikenberg and I believe in James Daniels. I do. So, I have more confidence in this O line and I think the biggest problem for Miami has been fixed. We’re going to continue to talk about that, but I want to give it a little quick pause. Confidence level in the O line from the people watching at home. Scale of one to 100. 100 being this is going to be the best O line in football. One being it’s going to be the worst O line in football. Let me know your confidence level in this Dolphins O line in the comments section. Right now, I’m going to give you mine here in a second. With two improvements at left guard and right guard, that should prove to be a really big change for the Dolphins. I mean, I can’t overstate going from Robert Jones to James Daniels and Liam Iikenberg to Jonah Savinia. It’s going to be absolutely massive. So, what is my confidence level? I’m giving it a 72. I think if you look at what the Dolphins did last season, you would say the offensive line was probably like in the 40s. Like, that’s the confidence level on a week- toeek basis, I would give the Dolphins O line going into week one, assuming that the five that I presented on screen a couple minutes ago is your starting O line against the Colts in week one. Yeah, I’m going 72. I believe in them. I believe this will be a better unit. And to be fair, like it can’t get worse. Like I say, I believe this will be a better unit. Well, last year’s unit might have been here and the and the worst is here. So, you’re already at the bottom. So, you just got to be a little bit better. Like, this old line just simply can’t be worse than it was last season. And I have a couple more stats that show how ugly it was. I mean, it’s embarrassing. And this is more in the run department. The Dolphins had the worst rate of first down runs, rushing first down percentage. 20.7% of the Dolphins carries last season resulted in first downs. 32nd in the NFL. If you didn’t know, there’s 32 NFL teams. So, it’s that blast. And then the Dolphins as a team averaged four yards per carry. That was tied for 27. So, it’s like all the numbers I show, pass block win rate, run block win rate, rushing first down percentage, yards per carry, PFF grade, all of them have Miami in the bottom five O line from a year ago. So, I don’t think there’s much more I need to say in terms of, yeah, this was the biggest issue for Miami a season ago, and I expect there to be improvements, and now I want to look specifically at those improvements, and we’re going to start at left guard. The Dolphins gave out one multi-year contract that really had significant value. Like the other multi-year deal they gave out was Nick Westperini on a two-year $7.5 million deal. James Daniels got a threeear $24 million deal. That was the biggest contract they give out. And he’s going to come in here to be your starting left guard or right guard. I would start him at left guard. That remains to be seen where James Daniels ultimately starts. But with Robert Jones being as bad as he was last season, there was no other way but up. And I do give Robert Jones credit because Armstead this time, Austin Jackson this time, Robert Jones didn’t miss any games. He started all 17. So I give him credit on that end. But he wasn’t good. And you saw the numbers from James Daniels. Yeah. That he only played four games and he suffered a pretty cat catastrophic injury. No, no doubt about it. But when he is on the football field, he is playing at a high level. And if you look at his zone run blocking stats compared to his power run blocking stats, it shows you that he’s much better in that zone type of scheme, which if you didn’t know, that’s what Mike MDaniel runs. So that’s a scheme. So like that’s a perfect fit. And I think James Daniel is going to come in, be perfect, and be ready to roll week one against the Indianapolis Colts. More coming here in a second, but make sure you are subscribed to the channel for more daily coverage on the fins. This is the place for you. We’re a family here at Dolphins today, so join us. It’ll be a lot of fun watching Dolphins football together this season, but we’re going to have videos in between games and leading up to the preseason training camp portion of the offseason. Yeah, James Daniels is coming off a torn Achilles. I get how that would be concerning to a lot of fans out there. It’s concerning to me. I’m not gonna act like it’s nothing, but I have the utmost confidence that he will build be an upgrade over Robert Jones even coming off a torn. I I I really believe that and I don’t want to just make this the let’s on Iikenberg and Robert Jones show, but that’s truly where things actually are. Like they were so bad that like it can’t get worse. So yes, I do believe James Daniel is going to be a massive improvement. It’s why Miami felt good about giving him a three-year $24 million deal. And hopefully he’s able to reward Chris Greer and Mike McDaniel for believing him in him this off season and giving him that contract. Let’s shift it over to the other guard spot, Liam Iikenberg. I mean, the fact that we are released from the clutches of this terrorist is so awesome. Like, I’m sorry, Liam. You’re a great guy. That’s what everyone says that knows you in the building, but you are atrocious and you just are. I don’t want to sugarcoat it. I’m sorry. Ever since he was drafted in the second round out of Notre Dame, he’s been horrible. The only thing he’s got going for him is that he knows Mike McDaniel’s scheme and he’s versatile. He’s played tackle, he’s played guard, he’s played center, but he’s also been one of the worst players in all of the NFL. Anything, and I mean anything, would be an upgrade over Liam Mikeberg. If the Dolphins drafted a fourth round guard, it would be an upgrade. But they really invested by going out and getting Jonah Savinia who played right tackle, played left tackle, right guard for the University of Arizona and did it an extremely high level. And we’ve talked a lot about Savia this off season. There’s no doubt about it. He’s one of my favorite picks in the entire draft, not even just for the Fins. Like, he just is a leader. He’s hard-nosed. He will set the tone in the locker room and be a leader. And I’m excited for that aspect that he’ll bring to the table as well. But the dude can flat out play, too, man. He can flat out play. He will be a massive upgrade over Liamberg. Do you feel the same way? Is Jonah Savinia an upgrade over Liamberg? I think he is, but let me know your thoughts. Y for yes, N for no. I don’t think you can really say that he’s not there. All right, there’s another position that is changing, and that’s at left tackle. This one’s going to be the one where you’re probably downgrading slightly, but I don’t want that to be a knock on Patrick Paul. It’s a changing of the guard. You’re going from one of the best left tackles in the game in Terron Armstead to an unproven firstear full-time starter in Patrick Paul. Paul got three starts last season, couple of them late in the year, one of them against the Houston Texans. That game was an absolute disaster. The O line just absolutely got killed. Kendall Lamb started at right tackle. Paul was at left tackle. Jackson Carman got PT. It was brutal. And like you see the numbers like I’m not gonna sit up here and act like Patrick Paul was phenomenal as a rookie. He wasn’t. And Terron Armstead was a top five graded offensive tackle last season. But like I believe in him and so does the coaching staff. So do his teammates. Terron Armstead in his retirement media tour has consistently said that he believes Patrick Paul has put in the work. He showed his dedication to his body, to his craft, his technique, to this organization while learning behind him all last season to where he’s going to be in line to be a big-time riser this year and be the franchise left tackle for the Miami Dolphins. And I know that means a little bit different for Miami in compared to other teams because his blind side is the right tackle, Austin Jackson, rather than Paul at left tackle. Will it be a downgrade from last season? I don’t think that’s a question. It won’t be as good as Terron Armstead, but I expect it to not be as severe as a drop off as many people might imagine. And then when you factor in the improvements at left guard and right guard with Savvy Naya and James Daniels, I expect an improved O line. I just don’t know how you as a fan can sit here and believe otherwise. Like I know it’s hard to really feel confident about a Dolphins O line because there just really hasn’t been a good one ever since that. Well, I know it’s only two years ago, but 2023 obviously a good old line there. Such a good rushing attack. It’s why the Dolphins had a top five offensive in football. But it’s like Miami’s O line has been an issue for almost every other year in the last decade besides that one. I think this O line has a chance to be really, really good. And I think it has a chance to be a I wouldn’t say top 10 O line, but average to above average. Like could it be an O line that ranks anywhere between like 11 and 16? I think so. Anything outside of the bottom 12 is a win for me. If the Dolphins have a O line that is ranked higher than 19, that’s a win because it’s how that’s how bad it was last season. So, I expect an upgrade and I hope to see one. That’ll do it for this episode of Dolphins today. If you made it to the end of this video, hit that thumbs up icon. Like I mentioned, don’t jinx it. If you want the O line to improve, you got to hit that like icon here. And if you made it to the end of the video and haven’t hit the like button, what are you doing? You clearly like what we’re bringing to the table. So, just take one second out of your day and hit the thumbs up button. [Music]

Miami Dolphins news is the talking point for this edition of Dolphins Today by Chat Sports as the Dolphins may have FINALLY fixed their biggest issue before heading into the 2025 NFL season. In the 2024 NFL season, the Dolphins biggest weakness was along their offensive line as they struggled to protect quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. In the 2025 NFL offseason the Dolphins addressed the issues along the offensive line with some MASSIVE moves that head coach Mike McDaniel is hoping will help lead the Fins back to the NFL Playoffs. Dolphins Report host Nic Rohloff is here to breakdown all of the upgrades Miami made on their offensive line as well as discuss what he expects from the unit in 2025.

You want the O-Line to improve? Like the video!

Dolphins offensive line changes:
2024:
– LT: Terron Armstead
– LG: Robert Jones
– RG: Liam Eichenberg
– C/RT: Brewer/Jackson
2025:
– LT: Patrick Paul
– LG: James Daniels
– RG: Jonah Savaiinaea
– C/RT: Brewer/Jackson

Be a Dolphins Today Real One and turn on notifications to never miss a beat!

Chat Sports is on social media breaking down the NFL, NBA, and more! Give a follow today:
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chatsports
– Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chatsports
– TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chatsportstv

Dolphins O-Line stats in 2024:
– PFF Grade: 56.0 (27th)
– PBLK Win Rate: 56% (28th)
– RBLK Win Rate: 70% (26th)

Dolphins Today is a place of discourse! Sound off on today’s questions:
– Confidence-level in Dolphins O-Line? Scale of 1-100
– Is Savaiinaea an upgrade over Liam? Type ‘Y’ for Yes or ‘N’ for No

Know a Dolphins fan who would love the video today? Send it to them!

Miami Dolphins coaching staff:
Head Coach: Mike McDaniel
Defensive Coordinator: Anthony Weaver
Special Teams Coach: Craig Aukerman
Offensive Coordinator: Frank Smith

Want up-to-the minute Miami Dolphins coverage in the NFL Offseason? You are in the right place! Subscribe to Dolphins Today: http://youtube.com/DolphinsNews?sub_confirmation=1

Get additional content from Dolphins Today host Nic Rohloff of social media:
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/nic_rohloff
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dolphinstodayig/

Our Main @chatsports channel has MORE NFL content! http://www.youtube.com/@chatsports?sub_confirmation=1

Need more Miami Dolphins YouTube videos? Look no further:
– Minkah Fitzpatrick Will Be A BUST For Miami In 2025 via Bleacher Report! Miami Dolphins Rumors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7NDZw27JyM
– Miami Dolphins Cutting STAR UDFA Before Dolphins Training Camp? Dolphins Rumors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb6fYg4RKrY
– Miami Dolphins Named LOSERS Of Jalen Ramsey Trade! Is This Accurate? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptglelTxRZE

#Dolphins #DolphinsNews #DolphinsRosterNews #CSB