Dolphins to bring in Terron Armstead for visit, decide against Bengals-bound Collins
Free agent Terron Armstead is visiting Dolphins headquarters on Monday, and the team hopes to sign the player considered the best left tackle in this free agent class.
Armstead is flying to South Florida on Sunday night, a source confirmed.
According to two sources, the Dolphins stopped pursuing free agent right tackle La’el Collins the past two days because they were focusing their efforts on Armstead. Collins, who never received an offer from Miami, agreed to terms with the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
Armstead, 30, is considered one of the best left tackles in football but missed nine games last season, two the previous season.
Pro Football Focus rated him the No. 1 player in this free agent class, noting that “he has consistently been one of the best tackles in football since he was drafted in 2013, earning an overall grade above 75.0 in each season. While he’s graded better as a pass-blocker over his career, he’s not a liability in the run game by any means. There aren’t many weaknesses to Armstead’s game. He’s one of the position’s best pass-protectors and rarely loses in the run game across both gap and zone run concepts.”
The Dolphins’ starting tackles last season - Liam Eichenberg on the left side and Jesse Davis on the right side - gave up a combined 17 sacks and yielded the most quarterback pressures of any tackle combo in the NFL.
If the Dolphins land Armstead - and they hope to - then they could play Eichenberg or Robert Hunt at right tackle.
If the Dolphins do not land Armstead, their options would include free agents Duane Brown (Seattle), Eric Fisher (Indianapolis), Trent Brown (New England) and Billy Turner (Green Bay), and more than a half dozen others. But the Dolphins hadn’t reached out to Turner as of earlier this weekend.
And Duane Brown, at 36, is past his prime, having allowed eight sacks last season. Fisher graded out very well as a run-blocker last season but yielded seven sacks. Trent Brown has missed 24 games over the past three seasons.
The Dolphins have signed 18 players in free agency, but not a single tackle among other. Guard Connor Williams, signed last week, could play tackle but hasn’t played the position since he played at the University of Texas.
For now, the focus is on landing Armstead.
The Dolphins have less than $10 million in cap space and part of that is needed to sign a draft class and practice squad. But the Dolphins could clear out $21 million more by releasing seven backups, or less than that by cutting a smaller number of backups.
This story was originally published March 20, 2022 at 4:54 PM.
