Dolphins star Terron Armstead needed a knee replacement for most of 2024 season
Terron Armstead has long since been known as a warrior.
Name an injury — knee, shoulder, back, ankle — and it’s likely that Armstead has dealt with it. That said, the five-time Pro Bowl left tackle recently revealed that he played through most of last season on a knee that doctors doctors told him needed to be replaced.
“I just want to see what my quality of life is now,” Armstead said Saturday at his retirement party, emphasizing that he wants to see how mobile he is for his kids. He later later added that “as long as I can hold off on the knee replacement, I will.”
Armstead has dealt with knee injuries for the past three seasons. In 2024 specifically, he would miss practice for weeks at a time just to be able to play on Sunday. Even more impressive: he missed only two full games in what would be his final season.
“He’s able to do a lot of really cool things and we’re very, almost desensitized to however we’ve had to get him to game day,” coach Mike McDaniel said. “There’s not professionals at the left tackle position that do that really, and so to do that, you have to be very trusting in your body because you’re doing a lot of things mentally during the week, and if your body doesn’t meet the expectation that you have going into it, things can snowball quickly and for him and his teammates.”
Armstead’s resilience made him a beloved figure among his teammates.
“He’s one of the best pros I’ve ever been around,” fullback Alec Ingold said. “He doesn’t talk very much, but when he talks, people listen. He has a very unique leadership style to him. He’s almost like a father figure it seems like in the huddle. You can tell when he’s on the field, guys have confidence. All 10 guys outside of Terron have confidence when you see 72 in the huddle, and I think that carries over into the locker room. You see him and his presence; it’s calming, it’s confident, it’s not arrogant in the slightest and I think the more things that he’s doing off of the field, I think that bleeds onto the field, being a role model and example for a lot guys, myself included, looking up to his academy, his financial literacy work that he’s doing.”
“He’s a dawg,” quarterback Tua Tagovailoa added. There’s been a lot of things that he’s been dealing with injury-wise, and I’ve got a lot of respect – tremendous amount of respect – for him being able to fight through those and still go out there and compete and play to protect me, to protect our backs and to protect our ball carriers. I wish I could do something to help with some of the injuries that he goes through, but just overall dawg.”
That sort of mentality will be missed in the Dolphins’ locker room as the 2025 season approaches. With Armstead’s recent retirement and defensive tackle Calais Campbell’s return to the Arizona Cardinals, the Dolphins have lost nearly 30 combined years of experience.
“It’s a collection” of players, Armstead said of who will be the team’s new leader, later adding that the “the knowledge is there. The groundwork has been laid. The O-line knows what it takes as far as work. I came in and instilled that early.”
Armstead then called the team right on the verge of success.
“It’s going to be a void in experience, but the team is explosive,” Armstead said. “The team is close. With Tua under center, doing everything, we can win every game.”
