How Good Can the O-Line Be? How Good Does It Need To Be?

The topic of offensive weapons came up during Miami Dolphins tackle Terron Armstead’s post-practice media session Thursday, and the four-time Pro Bowl selection wanted to make sure his position group wasn’t left out.

“Yeah, we’ve got weapons,” Armstead said. “We have weapons all over the field and we’re not apologizing for it. I want all of them out there. We’ll all be out there at the same time, and O-line, we’re going to be a weapon for us, too. We’re going to fly off the ball. We’re going to move people and give those guys an opportunity to make plays.”

Because training camp is the time when optimism reigns in every single solitary NFL city — or just about every city — Armstead’s statement shouldn’t be considered surprising, though there certainly would be a large section of fans, as well as media analysts who might do a double take.

The Dolphins offensive line? A weapon?

Look for stories about that Dolphins offensive line and the term “much-maligned” likely will show up. This is a group that’s been under major scrutiny for a couple of years now and nothing has changed this year, regardless of Armstead’s comments.

But the simple question here is whether the Dolphins offensive line can be effective or even good. Becoming “a weapon” seems a tad unrealistic, particularly when you consider four national media outlets ranked NFL offensive lines this summer and the Dolphins didn’t fare better than 18th (by Pro Football Focus) in any of them.

The offensive line took some shots as well last year, but it performed well enough to help the Dolphins finish first in the NFL in total yards and first in rushing average per attempt.

Individually, former center Connor Williams earned the second-highest grade given out by PFF, Robert Hunt was sixth among guards, and Armstead was 16th among tackles. So it’s not as though players didn’t get the job done.

Again according to PFF, the Dolphins ranked 16th in pass blocking grade and 18th in run blocking grade.

This was a far cry, though, from the famous ESPN pass block win rate, a stat often cited by critics of the Dolphins offensive line, because it had them at 31st in the NFL. But what needs to be remembered is that ESPN gives out a win only if the offensive lineman keeps the pass rusher off the quarterback for 2.5 seconds or longer.

Well, how many times did Tua Tagovailoa actually throw the ball before 2.5 seconds? Think of all those bubble screens, quick slants or even shovel passes where the ball is long gone before 2.5 seconds.

Maybe a better barometer would be pressure rate, where the Dolphins ranked fourth in the NFL with pressure allowed on 15.8 percent of pass attempts (per Pro Football Reference). The Dolphins also were tied for fourth in the NFL in rushing yards before contact at 2.8.

And back to the ESPN analytics, the Dolphins ranked eighth in the NFL in run block win rate.

So statistically the Dolphins offensive line was more than serviceable in 2023.

Of course, this is where we add that not only does the quick passing game help the pass protection work for the offensive line, but the misdirection in the running game also helps the run blocking because defenders often run themselves out of position without having to be blocked.

As the Dolphins prepare for their second preseason game against the Washington Commanders, the offensive line remains in a state of flux because of injuries.

Isaiah Wynn, who started the first seven games at left guard last season, remains on PUP with a “lower extremity” injury. Center Aaron Brewer has a hand injury that has sidelined him for more than a week. And Armstead remains on a maintenance program as he shoots for the first complete season of his otherwise impressive NFL career.

“I think it’s just being smart as far as everything that we can do in a preventative aspect, but football is football,” Armstead said. “You still go out there, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do full speed so I’m going to have to be in there hitting, clashing, all that good stuff anyway. So I think it’s just kind of taking a load off the body as much as we can.”

Wynn and Brewer definitely won’t play against Washington on Saturday, and it’s highly unlikely we’ll see Armstead, either.

So the offensive line that takes the field against Washington on Saturday likely will look a lot different than the one the Dolphins end up using for most of 2024.

Whatever that line looks like again will be helped by head coach Mike McDaniel’s creativity and the ability of Tua to quickly deliver the ball to receivers adept at getting open very quickly.

Is the Dolphins offensive line really going to become a weapon? Maybe that’s stretching things too far. But does the offensive line need to be a weapon?

The past two seasons showed us the Dolphins offense can be productive — at times explosive — despite having arguably a middle-of-the-pack offensive line and there’s no reason to think that’ll change in 2024.

But if the offensive line indeed could become better than mid-tier, then that would open up all sorts of possibiilties for McDaniel and his offensive players.