We graded Jonah Savaiinaea\u2019s rookie performance at the end of the season<\/a>, so there\u2019s not a ton to add here.\u00a0<\/p>\nSavaiinaea\u2019s game has not translated remotely well. He took some small strides in the middle of the year, but he mostly undid all of that good work in the final two weeks of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The issue with Savaiinaea is in pass protection. His technique is a mess, and his poor play has led to many sacks and blown plays this season. He allowed eight sacks and 45 pressures this past season, and the film was brutal.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s too early to give up on Savaiinaea completely, but it\u2019s hard to find many examples of players performing this poorly as a rookie and bouncing back to have a solid career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grade: F\u00a0<\/p>\n
RT Austin Jackson\u00a0<\/p>\n
Austin Jackson played in just six games this season after suffering another serious injury late in the team\u2019s Week 1 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Jackson returned, he was his usual solid self. He\u2019s not the best pass protector, but he\u2019s a huge plus in the running game, and he was an excellent scheme fit for Mike McDaniel\u2019s offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jackson\u2019s contract is incredibly cuttable this offseason, and he\u2019s injury-prone enough that Miami might just want to move on for the sake of trying to find a more reliable option.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grade: C\u00a0<\/p>\n
RT Larry Borom\u00a0<\/p>\n
Larry Borom made 11 starts this past season in place of Jackson, which is way more than anyone expected when he was signed to a modest free agent contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Relative to the expectations of being a backup offensive lineman, Borom played OK for the Dolphins in 2025. He allowed 15 pressures and two sacks this past season, and the tape was far from ideal. Also, the Dolphins frequently slid protections to Borom\u2019s side because he was struggling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had some nice moments in the running game, but he was pretty uneven in that category as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Overall, Borom provided the Dolphins with pretty average backup offensive line play. That\u2019s not saying a ton given the state of offensive line play in the NFL, but it\u2019s something.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grade: C-\u00a0<\/p>\n
RG Cole Strange\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cole Strange was signed following the team\u2019s Week 3 loss to the Buffalo Bills and became the starting right guard in Week 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Strange deserves credit for acclimating so quickly and for gradually improving as the season progressed. However, he was a significant liability for the Dolphins for most of 2025, creating the NFL\u2019s worst guard duo with Savaiinaea.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Strange allowed 24 pressures and two sacks and was wildly inconsistent in the running game. He fit the Dolphins’ scheme, and he was probably better than Kion Smith, who originally was the team\u2019s primary backup at guard, but that\u2019s not saying much.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grade: D\u00a0<\/p>\n
OL Daniel Brunskill\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brunskill is a strange player to grade because he was really used as an extra offensive lineman more than anything. Still, the Dolphins\u2019 six-offensive line package was a huge reason for the offense\u2019s midseason resurgence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brunskill deserves a ton of credit for adapting to that role and being flexible. That said, Brunskill is not a particularly reliable blocker at this point in his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The extra offensive line package worked more because it forced defenses into awkward spots more than it did because Brunskill was paving the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grade: C<\/p>\n
RG James Daniels\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daniels suffered a season-ending injury three snaps into the 2025 campaign, so we\u2019re not grading him off that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, we\u2019re not giving him a grade at all. We\u2019re mentioning him because the story of the team\u2019s offensive line would be incomplete without acknowledging that the Daniels\u2019 signing was a total failure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was expected to come in and solidify the guard position, but he was coming off an Achilles tear in 2024, and his pectoral injury in 2025 proved too serious to return to action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This forced the Dolphins into the Cole Strange experiment and will likely lead to Daniels getting cut this offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grade: Incomplete <\/p>\n
More Miami Dolphins Coverage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Miami Dolphins\u2019 season did not go as planned, largely because their roster didn\u2019t meet expectations.\u00a0 Now that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,216,251,2087,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-725800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-dolphins","12":"tag-miamidolphins","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116005727691864997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}