Jul
6
By far, the biggest question mark for the Dolphins is at guard.
There’s a good chance the Dolphins will start a player at guard who has no prior NFL experience.
That’s a scary thought, especially since the downfall of the offense has been the offensive line.
The contenders for the starting jobs (yes, it’s plural) are Billy Turner (19 snaps in 2014), Jamil Douglas (entering his rookie season), Jason Fox (minus-7.2 grade in 138 snaps), Jeff Linkenbach (primarily a bench player throughout his career) and Dallas Thomas (much maligned due to his tackle play, but at guard was just as bad with a minus-12.4 overall at guard).
Scary times up the middle, so much so that ESPN’s James Walker wondered if Miami’s guards are “good enough.“
According to Omar Kelly of The Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins are comfortable with their guards, with head coach Joe Philbin saying:
“There’s no question in my mind that they’ll be capable of doing the job. I think they just need experience, they need repetition, they need exposure, they need to work with [center Mike] Pouncey and the guy next to them and get it figured out.
“It may not be as pretty as we want it day one of training camp, but I think they are great guys. Football is important to them. These guys have been working extremely hard.
“You just never know, you have to have some patience and kind of a long-term view of this thing.”
Despite that, Kelly reports the Dolphins are still interested in signing Evan Mathis, provided the price is right.
That would be an extremely great idea, but he might be too expensive for them going forward. Despite that, I advocate spending the money and getting it done since it will solve the biggest obstacle Miami will face this season.
Advanced stats provided by Pro Football Focus unless otherwise noted.
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