MIAMI GARDENS — The way Patrick Paul is looking in training camp, he might have Miami Dolphins fans asking “Terron who?” this season.
OK, let’s give Terron Armstead, the five-time Pro Bowl left tackle who retired this offseason, his due respect.
But the potential that made Dolphins general manager Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel take a chance on Paul in the second round of the 2024 draft start is starting to flash this training camp.
He was already known to possess the size and athleticism — now listed at 6 foot 7, 326 pounds — to be an effective NFL offensive lineman. But it was thought it would take time for him to develop.
He was a second-round pick with the knowledge Armstead would play that season. Paul would essentially have a redshirt year in the pros before he was counted on to be a full-time starter — of course, with the chance to fill in for Armstead as he was constantly battling knee issues and an assortment of other injuries.
Armstead’s retirement cleared the path for Paul to be the Dolphins’ starting left tackle without contention. Although conventional wisdom would tell one he still has to go through his struggles as a first-time starter, he might be ahead of schedule in polishing his technique, to go with those raw tools.
Paul has been standing out in 1-on-1 battles since pads first came on at Dolphins camp Tuesday.
In pass protection, he has shown the lateral quickness to avoid getting beat with a speed rush and then the anchor to hold his ground upon impact. He decides the depth he’s blocking at on his side of the line, and he is not getting pushed back from that spot.
Paul uses his hands effectively. His long arms make it difficult for a pass rusher to gain leverage on him. He just has to caution himself from getting too aggressive with those hands, giving ground to an overzealous official to call him for a hold. In the run game, his slimmed-down frame from an offseason of work grants him an extra level of athleticism for McDaniel’s wide-zone blocking scheme.
For Paul, he knew very early in this offseason, when he decided to train at Dolphins headquarters and be around his coaching staff, he had to attack the opportunity in front of him this year with vigor.
“I love this game and I love everything that it brings,” he said. “This has always been my dream, so every day I come in and I’m excited. It’s like Groundhog Day; I’m living my dream every day.”
Work done weeks and months ago for Paul has led him to the point where his progress shows in camp.
“Patrick Paul is having a very good camp and that’s because he had a very good five-week training period of time on his own that followed a great eight-week program of offseason,” McDaniel said Friday. “I think he’s been on a steady confidence climb and it was very helpful getting ingratiated into the NFL game and being able to play behind Terron Armstead — one of the best to do it — and he’s operating every day like he knows the NFL regular season is coming and he wants to surprise people.”
Paul played sparingly as a rookie. Three starts plus other games where he relieved Armstead amounted to 337 offensive snaps in 2024.
Dolphins Deep Dive: Top 5 training camp performers | VIDEO
He said, entering 2024, he studied all those reps, while also analyzing other tackles across the league to get prepared for his moment.
“Patrick has been doing great because he has to,” McDaniel said earlier in camp. “Otherwise, he would be miserable because, you go in the grass against our edges, there’s no days off. I think his growth has been monumental. I think he’s one of the guys that you can feel a different energy based on earned confidence.”
Bradley Chubb is one of those edge rushers getting Paul better with valuable practice experience.
“Fistfights — not literally fistfights, but you know, back and forth,” Chubb said of them going against each other. “It’s a boxing match. At the end of the day, you win some, he wins some, and you just get back and learn from it and go back at it. I’m excited to see his growth, though. He’s been doing a really good job.”
Said fellow outside linebacker Quinton Bell: “Night and day from last year. … We’re definitely having conversations in our room about the way he’s shooting his hands, his body and things he’s doing in that nature. He’s big, man. He’s really big, so he’s presenting a challenge for us each and every day, as we are to him. I love that competition that we have, it’s only making us better for the regular season.”
Originally Published: August 2, 2025 at 9:45 AM EDT