Tough as nails: How a glammed up Robert Hunt is ready to shine for Dolphins at guard
Robert Hunt is built like a mountain, and when he makes a fist, he has the moon literally in the palm of his hands.
The Dolphins’ second-year offensive lineman presented himself to reporters Tuesday with flair dripping from his fingertips.
He proudly paints his nails, and during his first Zoom news conference of 2021 showed off the personalized art on top of the polish.
“Just a different style,” Hunt said. “It’s like a lightning bolt. I got some stars. I got a heart. I got the moon. Different things. Just came to my head, I wanted to put it on my nails. I think it’s fun.”
A frivolous anecdote? Perhaps. But one that suggests just how comfortable Hunt is entering Year 2 after appearing in all 16 games as a rookie, starting 11 at right tackle.
Perhaps it’s because he has a sense of a greatness to come.
The Dolphins have, at least for now, decided to slide Hunt inside from right tackle to right guard, a position where his collegiate coordinator Rob Sale — who’s now the New York Giants’ offensive coach — believes he can be an All-Pro.
“This is going to be my first year playing guard since my sophomore year of college, if I do play it,” Hunt said. “We are all moving around. But it’s football at the end of the day, and I think whatever I am needed to do, I think my body will allow me to do it.”
The Dolphins list Hunt at 323 pounds — the same amount that he weighed at the NFL Scouting Combine in the winter of 2020.
He wasn’t overmatched at tackle as a rookie — he allowed just three sacks in 720 offensive snaps — but the Dolphins telegraphed their intentions by drafting Liam Eichenberg and signing D.J. Fluker within the span of a week in April.
Eichenberg, Fluker and Jesse Davis will presumably get a chance to win the job at right tackle.
But there’s no such drama at right guard. The job is Hunt’s to lose.
“Everybody’s training different positions, so everybody’s always helping each other with everything,” Hunt said. “Since college, I’ve always been playing every position, so I’ve already got the idea of how to switch. I played in college left guard, right guard, left tackle, right tackle. Whatever I’m needed to do, I’ll do, just to help the team.”
Hunt has the disposition of a man who has already beaten the odds. He grew up in extreme poverty and was a two-star recruit who had exactly one scholarship offer — from Louisiana-Lafayette, where he blossomed under Sale.
“I’m extremely blessed,” Hunt said. “I wouldn’t take this for granted. It’s just a blessing. It’s an honor to be here. Whatever I can do to keep this and maintain. It’s definitely a blessing to know where I come from, to be here and to play well, I wouldn’t say play well, but doing what I have to do and compete for a spot, compete for a job.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 3:56 PM.
