Dolphins share new plan for Savaiinaea. And Dolphin retires, Slowik nuggets
Even as Jonah Savaiinaea was struggling through his rookie season, even as he was permitting more quarterback pressures and sacks than any other NFL guard, the former Dolphins coaching staff insisted that his growing pains had nothing to do with playing a new position.
Former Dolphins coaches Mike McDaniel, Frank Smith and Butch Barry said last season that the fact Savaiinaea was immediately placed at left guard with the Dolphins — after playing almost entirely right guard, right tackle and left tackle in college — did not leave him at any sort of disadvantage as a rookie.
The new Dolphins regime apparently isn’t so convinced of that.
New offensive line coach Zach Yenser said Tuesday that Savaiinaea will move back to his college position of right guard after lining up at left guard last season.
“He’s going to be better and have more confidence switching back to the right,” Yenser said. “He has a lot of built-up reps on the right side. That was a conversation we had with Jonah [a few weeks ago]: ‘Hey you played on the right side.’ He was excited to be able to have an opportunity if we drafted the right guy to be able to move back over to the right side.”
Dolphins rookie first-round pick Kadyn Proctor is slated to play left guard this season, barring a change of heart by the team.
Though he’s only in his second season, Savaiinaea might be facing his last chance to salvage his Dolphins career, because this regime did not draft him. Pro Football Focus rated Savaiinaea the worst guard in the NFL last season among 81 qualifiers.
But Yenser suggested he sees potential with the former second-round pick, who is expected to compete with former Chargers starter Jamaree Salyer and Texas rookie sixth-round pick DJ Campbell for the starting right guard job.
“I like Jonah when we were [coaching] in Houston, and he was coming out of Arizona,” Yenser said. “There were a lot of good things his rookie year. I thought his movement skills for his size shows up on tape. The thing for Jonah — he has to stay connected to the ground.”
In other words: Don’t allow himself to get knocked on his backside, which was a problem last season.
As a pass blocker, he allowed 45 pressures (most among NFL guards) in 579 pass-blocking snaps. His eight sacks were two more than any other NFL guard permitted.
“In pass protection, we are working on his demeanor and timing of his punch and just being connected,” Yenser said. “Make these guys run around you and through you, not inside of you.”
Savaiinaea wasn’t much better as a run blocker than pass blocker. PFF rated him the worst run-blocking guard in the league among all guards who were on the field for at least 300 rushing attempts. (Savaiinaea blocked for 403 runs.)
“He needs to build on his run blocking,” Yenser said. “I thought he got a lot better as the year went on in the run blocking.”
Ousted former general manager Chris Grier coveted Savaiinaea so much that he traded the 48th, 98th and the 135th picks to Las Vegas to move up 11 spots to grab him 37th overall in last April’s draft.
“Definitely this season was not to my expectations or the standard I wanted to begin my career with,” Savaiinaea said in a conversation at his locker the day after the season. “But I’ve learned and become a better player toward the end of the season. It has been a great learning lesson.”
Running back retires
The Dolphins placed rookie running back Le’Veon Moss on the reserve/retired list on Tuesday, a surprising development for a player who was given $258,000 guaranteed. (Most or all of that money must now be returned.)
His agents declined to provide a reason for his decision, and teams typically don’t offer further explanation when a player is placed on the retired list.
New running backs coach Ladell Betts, speaking earlier Tuesday, said: “He’s very talented. He had some injuries at Texas A&M. The skill set jumps out at you.”
Moss missed Texas A&M’s final six regular season games with an ankle injury, then returned for the Aggies’ playoff game against Miami but was limited to 15 yards on 7 rushing attempts. For the season, he had 77 carries for 404 yards (5.2 per carry) and six TDs in seven games.
He scored 10 TDs for Texas A&M in 2024, when he averaged 6.3 per carry and was named second-team All-SEC. But he sustained a torn ACL and MCL late that season.
Moss, who is 5-11 and 203 pounds, averaged 5.5 per carry on 321 career carries at Texas A&M and ran for 22 touchdowns.
His retirement leaves Miami with five tailbacks: De’Von Achane, Jaylen Wright, Ollie Gordon, Donovan Edwards and undrafted Oregon State rookie Anthony Hankerson.
This and that
▪ New offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik on Proctor: He’s “absolutely massive. He’s one of the biggest individuals I’ve ever seen in my life. His legs are bigger than me. But he moves like he’s 290 or 300.”
“He’s a unique blend of size and speed and movement ability. He’s got great feet.”
Added Slowik on Proctor: “Now he played mainly left side in college, so we’re going to keep him on the left side whether it’s guard or tackle.” (Slowik did not indicate if he meant this season only; he wasn’t asked.)
▪ Slowik, on the benefit of having a quarterback as mobile as Malik Willis:
“The threat of it makes it 11-vs.-11, as opposed to 11-on-10. I think that’s what can get tough sometimes when you get a guy that maybe isn’t as mobile at quarterback, [defenses] have 11 guys and aside from throwing the ball, you’re really playing with 10.
“So it just lets you equalize some advantageous situations. Outside of that, really the mobility these days shows up more in off-schedule situations than it does anything. So it’s definitely a weapon and it’s a threat and it’s something you want a defense to think about.”
Here’s my Tuesday piece with more on the plans for Proctor and offensive assistant coach feedback on several Dolphins rookies.
This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 3:20 PM.
