Dolphins lose yet another offensive tackle to season-ending injury
The Miami Dolphins’ thinnest unit has been further depleted by yet another injury.
The Dolphins have placed veteran offensive tackle Germain Ifedi, who had only been with the team for 11 days, on injured reserve hours before Thursday’s second joint practice with the Detroit Lions.
Ifedi, a nine-year veteran who had started 90 NFL games, apparently suffered an undisclosed injury during Wednesday’s practice with the Lions, and it appears to be a season-ending injury.
He’s the fourth offensive tackle who suffered a serious injury during training camp, joining Obinna Eze, who also practiced with the team for a week before suffering his season-ending injury, Bayron Matos, who suffered a serious neck and shoulder injury on the first day of training camp, and Austin Jackson, who suffered a lower leg injury that will keep sidelined till possibly the start of the regular season.
Because offensive tackle happened to be the team’s thinnest — and most troublesome position — the Dolphins signed Yodny Cajuste, who most recently was a member of the New York Giants’ practice squad in 2023 before being waived injured by the Giants before the start of the 2024 regular season because of a leg injury.
Cajuste spent the 2021 and 2022 season with the New England Patriots, playing in 17 games with five starts. The former West Virginia standout, who happens to be a Miramar High product, played a total of 278 snaps in NFL regular-season games.
In Miami’s 24-24 tie against the Chicago Bears the Dolphins allowed six sacks, and most of those were a byproduct of struggles Larry Borom, the team’s top offensive tackle backup, Ifedi, Kion Smith, Ryan Hayes and Jalen McKenzie were having blocking Chicago’s edge rushers.
Borom is serving as Miami’s starting right tackle in Jackson’s absence, and Ifedi was working as Miami’s second-team left tackle, working behind Patrick Paul, the 2024 second-round pick who is expected to replace the recently retired Terron Armstead.
Not helping matters is the fact Liam Eichenberg, the team’s top backup offensive lineman, a player who has started games at every position on Miami’s offensive line, has been on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list because of a leg injury that could force him to miss the start of the regular season. The Dolphins are also practicing without Andrew Meyer, the team’s top backup center.
That means the Dolphins have to finish training camp without offensive linemen signed to the team’s 90-player training camp roster, and those injuries have exposed Miami’s troublesome depth on the offensive line, which was the unit that struggled the most in 2024.
At this point it would be wide for general manager Chris Grier to explore finding an offensive lineman in a trade like he has the past few seasons, adding offensive linemen like Greg Little, Evan Boehm, Danny Isidora, and Greg Mancz when teams begin trimming the 53-man roster before the August 26 4 p.m. deadline.
The Dolphins swapped a 2022 sixth-round pick for Mancz and a 2022 seventh-round selection, a pair of 2020 seventh-round picks for Boehm and Isidora.
This story was originally published August 14, 2025 at 9:48 AM.
