Is Bigger Necessarily Better? And Other O-line Thoughts
The Miami Dolphins' overhaul of their offensive line in the offseason brought a lot of youth and a lot of size.
It's been well documented that the Dolphins used three of their 11 picks in the 2020 NFL draft to select offensive linemen — Austin Jackson in the first round, Robert Hunt in the second, and Solomon Kindley in the fourth.
Jackson comes in at 325 pounds, which matches the heaviest weight for a Dolphins offensive player on the 2019 roster. But he's not the heaviest of the newcomers up front because Kindley checks in at 339 pounds and free agent pick-up Ereck Flowers is listed at 343 pounds.
Of course, this brings up the question: Is bigger necessarily better on the offensive line?
“There are a bunch of 400-pound people around out there that can’t play football, so size is not the only factor," offensive coordinator Chan Gailey said. "It’s like people used to tell me, ‘Hey, you’ve got some great speed at receiver.’ Well, if speed was the only factor, we’d go sign the Olympic team to come play football, so size is not the only factor in offensive line. But the key is to get those guys using that strength and that weight going in the right direction, doing the right things, and that’s the challenge for us. Bigger is better, only if it’s better.”
The Dolphins certainly hope the bigger newcomers produce better results than what they got from the offensive line last year because what we saw last year just ain't going to cut it for a team hoping to make the playoffs.
Clearly, the Dolphins are hoping for big things (no pun intended) from the newcomers.
Without the benefit of minicamps and preseason games, there's only so much evaluation that can be done from the outside. Offensive line coach Steve Marshall says the three drafted offensive linemen are making steady progress while going through the obligatory growing pains.
“Those three guys are competing," Marshall said. "As you guys know, they’re competing for a job. Those three guys have taken a role. They’re coming in and they’re learning every day. Every play is a new adventure for those guys. They were very good players at college level and they’re getting better every day. They’re bright-eyed and they learn and they’re competing hard. We’ve been pleased. Again, it’s just starting — three days of pads — and the hot Florida sun is a little bit of an eye-opener for some of those guys, but they’re fighting through it.”
Kindley is the one of the three that's gotten some early notice from the media, in part because he was the one drafted the latest.
“Solomon is a guy that if you went back and looked at him at Georgia, he’s a big man," Marshall said. "He’s smart. He’s a smart guy. He loves to play the game and that’s the one thing I think that for a 21-year-old kid that left college early to come to the NFL, he’s got to want to be a very good player; but obviously he has physical attributes and a skill set that — my grandmother can see that he’s a big man, but the thing about Solomon is he comes to work every day so far. We put a lot on him. We want to see where he is and he has not backed down a bit. Every day is an adventure for him. He’s a guy that like I said, it’s a whole new thing for him, a whole new nomenclature, a whole new thing and as rookies do, they have good plays, they have bad plays, and my job is to eliminate the bad ones and keep making the good ones better. That’s really where Solomon is as is Rob (Hunt) and AJ (Austin Jackson) and some of the other young guys that are playing on the offensive line.”
While the three draft picks are competing for starting jobs, it's widely expected that Flowers is pretty locked in to the starting left guard job.
The former University of Miami standout has been seen after practice trying to help his new, younger teammates.
"I’s huge," Not only Ereck and Ted (Karras) and Jesse (Davis) and some of the guys that have played in this league, it’s really guys like that that help guys because those young guys, they’ve had three weeks of work and it’s a whole different ball game," Marshall said. "The speed is different. Obviously the size and the physical movement (is different), so yeah, every day that not only helps them, it may give them a little tidbit and help them do with fundamentals and technique and some of the things we’re asking them to do, and then that’s what O-line(men) do. That helps build camaraderie and all the different aspects that go into playing offensive line in this league.”
