MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Question: What’s cause for more concern, the three top Miami Dolphins receivers who keep missing practices with injury or the five starting offensive linemen who keep making these practices?
The linemen showed up for work again Wednesday and gave the answer. It’s generally not a good thing when offensive linemen noticeable, and they’ve received plenty of notice already this summer.
It’s not time press the panic button — the idea here, in fact, is dredge up history to suggest the opposite, for this line be coached into a unit, for these expensive pieces to make it work and for this noticeable offensive line to turn efficiently invisible come the regular season.
But you see plenty to wonder about now. Rookie Liam Eichenberg, who cost a second- and third-round pick this draft as a “plug-and-play right tackle,’’ as ESPN draftnik Mel Kiper Jr. said, was moved to the less-challenging position of left guard. Re-plug him there?
That highlighted a shuffling of positions. And questions. They spilled into the first preseason game, when the running game started at the Chicago 1-yard line and ended two plays later at the 3-yard line. Wasn’t that a 2020 problem?
Then Wednesday. Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa gushed afterward about the Atlanta two-minute drill at the end of their joint practice that played tic-tac-toe down the field for a final-seconds field goal.
On his two-minute drill, Tagovailoa met Atlanta pass rushers on two of the three plays. First, Atlanta defensive end Dante Fowler sped by Dolphins left tackle Austin Jackson for a probable sack in the don’t-touch-the-quarterback scrimmage.
Then Steven Means rushed by right tackle Jesse Davis to pressure Tagovailoa into another incompletion.
All of it would signify a small moment, except it’s an ongoing moment this summer. It’s a repeated scene. Tagovailoa sought out Jackson on the sideline afterward because, “everyone sees something different” on plays and he wanted to sort that out.
Here’s what you expected to see: The line being the given part of this rebuild. Just the investment says that much. In the past three years, Dolphins General Manager Chris Grier has spent a first-round pick, two seconds, two thirds, two fourths and a seventh-round pick on this line. That’s not getting into the free-agent millions for departed pieces like Erik Flowers and Ted Karras.
There’s some talk to go outside for more help. And, by that, the idea is to go outside for more than sending a seventh-round pick for backup hope Greg Little as Grier did this week.
Here’s the bottom-line about this line: They’ve got to make these pieces work. Richmond Webb or Larry Little aren’t coming through the door. Maybe, in fact, they’re already here, too.
Here’s such an old story it comes with cobwebs. But hear it anyhow. The Dolphins had a line of two Hall of Famers and another Hall of Fame finalist who gave up eight sacks in their first collective start. Think of that: Eight sacks.
This was Don Shula’s first game in New England in 1970, and it was traumatic enough afterward that line coach Monte Clark felt such chest pains he was rushed to the hospital. Panic attack, the doctor said, not heart attack.
Eventually, that line molded well enough to be the foundation of Super Bowl teams and to send Larry Little and Jim Langer to the Hall of Fame. Out of that nothing start came something special. They went from being noticed to being invisibly dominant most Sundays.
Panic attacks are in vogue again with this line. Maybe, come October, they’ll be proven out — maybe the hefty cost of all these linemen won’t pay out at all. But it’s still mid-August, still time for sleeves to be rolled up and work to be done.
Does the coaching have to be better? Do the linemen? Was the drafting that questionable? Or do they just need time to come together, all these young parts, without too much made of August workouts?
If there’s a repetitive nature to all this, to this year’s line concerns sounding like five and 10 and 15 years ago, we can change the subject. Tua, for instance, marveled Wednesday at meeting Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan.
“It’s fascinating to see him still in the league and I’m starting my dream,’’ he said.
No one said Ryan started his dream in Atlanta because the Dolphins chose left tackle Jake Long with the No. 1 pick. Everyone’s tired of that story and so many other repetitive storylines around this franchise. Like, yeah, when the offensive line will be good again.
The investment was made in it. The pieces are there. There’s no need to panic - at least yet. There’s just a desperate need to make it all work.
