Dolphins will seek help at guard. A look at veteran options, best fits. And o-line notes
A six-pack of notes on the Dolphins’ offensive line, free agent guard options and more:
▪ Aside from backup quarterback, there’s no bigger offseason priority than finding two high-level starting guards.
And the Dolphins will have plenty of options; nearly 40 guards will be free agents, including several very good starters.
Among impending free agents, Pittsburgh’s James Daniels, the Colts’ Will Fries, Detroit’s Kevin Zeitler, Kansas City’s Trey Smith, Chicago’s Tevin Jenkins, San Francisco’s Aaron Banks, the Eagles’ Meckhi Becton, Baltimore’s Patrick Mekhari and Carolina’s Austin Corbett would all be appealing options.
Among 75 qualifying NFL guards this season, Pro Football Focus rated Zeitler third best, Smith 10th best and Jenkins 14th best.
Daniels’ season ended in Week 4 because of a torn Achilles. Fries’ season ended in Week 5 with a fractured tibia. Corbett’s season also ended in Week 5 because of a torn biceps.
PFF rated Banks 33rd among guards last season; he started all 43 games he played for the 49ers since the start of 2022.
Becton, who was disappointment as a tackle with the Jets, became a very good guard for the Eagles this season; PFF rated him 20th among all guards.
Mekari has started 53 games for Baltimore over seven seasons, including all 17 last season, and PFF rated him 51st last season. He can also play tackle.
Zack Martin, a nine-time Pro Bowl guard, had ankle surgery late last season and hasn’t said if he’s playing next season. He’s 34, and speculation has ranged from Martin retiring to staying with Dallas to joining the Bears. PFF rated him 32nd this season. Though he has Hall of Fame credentials, he doesn’t seem like a logical option for Miami.
Among other impending free agent starters and their PFF rankings for 2024, provided they played enough games to qualify: Arizona’s Will Hernandez (a four-year starter for the Cardinals who played only five games last season because of a knee injury), Arizona’s Evan Brown (30th), Tampa’s Ben Bredeson (59), the Vikings’ Dalton Risner (27th), Chicago’s Matt Pryor (21st), the Saints’ Lucas Patrick (37), Houston’s Kenyon Green (76) and Seattle’s Laken Tomlinson (46).
Both of Miami’s starting guards in 2024 are free agents. PFF ranked Dolphins left guard Rob Jones 60th and right guard Liam Eichenberg 70th among 75 qualifiers.
Part time starters available in free agency include Pittsburgh’s Nate Herbig (two starts last season; former Jets starter), Philadelphia’s Sua Opeta and Fred Johnson, Las Vegas’ Cody Whitehair, Cincinnati’s Cody Ford and Carolina’s Brady Christensen.
▪ Who would be the best fit for Miami’s zone blocking scheme among those free agents?
Though Daniels’ and Fries’ seasons were cut short by injury, they finished second and fifth, respectively, as run blockers, according to PFF grades. Zietler was third. The Dolphins badly need guards who can move people in the run game.
A veteran NFL evaluator said Fries, Daniels, Becton and Banks would be ideal fits for Miami’s zone blocking scheme. PFF rated Becton 21st and Banks 23rd as run blockers.
Conversely, Eichenberg was ranked 81st as a run blocker, and Jones was slotted 96th, among 134 guards who played any NFL snaps this season.
Though they aren’t traditional zone blocking linemen, the evaluator also spoke highly of Hernandez, Jenkins and Mekari.
The view here: Spend the money to sign Daniels, Fries, Zietler, Banks, Bechton, Smith, Jenkins or Mekari.
▪ Though the Dolphins obviously must improve on Eichenberg and Jones, neither finished among the worst 20 guards in pressures allowed (Eichenberg was 21st worst with 29; Jones was 24th worst with 28).
Rob Jones allowed five sacks, which was tied for 12th most among guards.
Among free agents, the Chiefs’ Smith didn’t allow a single sack in 708 pass blocking chances, and the 49ers’ Banks allowed only one in 471 pass blocking snaps.
On the opposite end among free agents, Pryor allowed seven sacks, Tomlinson six, Green six and Martin and Zietler five apiece.
Eichenberg allowed only two and Risner none.
▪ PFF ranked the Dolphins’ Aaron Brewer ninth among 43 qualifying centers.
Among all 63 centers who appeared in a game this season, Brewer was ranked 11th as a run blocker.
The Dolphins’ inability to consistently run between the tackles was more a guard issue than a center issue, though Brewer wasn’t as powerful in the run game over the final half of the season.
As a pass-blocker, Brewer permitted only two sacks and 14 pressures in 714 pass blocking snaps. That was a dramatic improvement from his 2023 season in Tennessee, when he yielded six sacks and 34 pressures. Credit Brewer, offensive line coach Butch Barry and Tua Tagovailoa’s quick release.
Among starting centers, Brewer went from having the third most pressures allowed in 2023 to the 10th fewest in 2024.
▪ Among 81 qualifying tackles, PFF rated Terron Armstead third, Kendall Lamm 34th, Austin Jackson 61st and Patrick Paul 79th.
Those rankings sell Jackson short as a run blocker; his absence due to knee surgery magnified his value on outside zone runs. He allowed three sacks and 15 pressures in 312 pass blocking snaps. By comparison, Armstead yielded three sacks (all late in the season) and 16 pressures in 501 pass blocking snaps.
▪ Though Paul certainly has potential, the Dolphins will be taking a step back if they replace Armstead with Paul this season – something that might be necessary because of Armstead’s big cap hit and durability issues.
Paul permitted three sacks and 15 pressures in 229 pass blocking chances. So he yielded the same number of sacks in 272 fewer pass blocking snaps than Armstead played and in 83 fewer pass blocking snaps than Jackson played.
What’s more, PFF rated Armstead the fourth best run blocking tackle in football and rated Paul the worst of 81.
So there might be growing pains with the second-round pick if he replaces Armstead in 2025.
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 1:39 PM.
