Armstead Practice Watch Continues
When the Miami Dolphins took the field Wednesday in preparation for their season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers, the media focus when taking attendance was on the offensive line. More specifically, it was on whether Terron Armstead would be on the field with his teammates and, more importantly, whether he would be taking part in practice.
And, as was the case so often last year, Armstead was not spotted during the portion of practice open to the media.
Easily one of the most important players on the Dolphins offense — not the entire roster, really — Armstead has been out of action since Aug. 17 when he sustained a lower-leg injury on the very first 11-on-11 offensive snap in the second of the two joint practices with the Houston Texans.
It's an unfortunate case of deja vu for the Dolphins and Armstead after the prized 2022 free agent acquisition barely practiced in his first season in Miami.
“There were measures taken this offseason so that we could prevent that from occurring," head coach Mike McDaniel said before practice Wednesday. "You can’t control everything, but that was part of the reason we had such a gradual introduction into football for him is to try to avoid that at all costs. That’s not ideal.
"It’s already hard enough when you’re playing, offensive, defensive line football. That’s where the phrase, it’s a game of inches comes from. When you’re in charge of blocking the best athletes in the game, you can’t have anything in your head. It’s already hard enough to block them the way that Terron is able to do. But to do it without going through the calls, the calls between your teammates, the assignments live speed, it’s pretty remarkable what he was able to do last year. We’re trying to avoid that as best we can. But we’ll always adapt.”
ARMSTEAD'S LIMITED PRACTICE TIME IN 2022
Armstead earned his fourth Pro Bowl invitation last season with a really impressive performance on game days, which he accomplished despite a lack of practice time.
Based on the official injury reports each team is required to file for the three practices heading into each regular season game, Armstead was listed as DNP (did not practice) a whopping 36 times last season, including the playoff game at Buffalo — doing quick math, that's twice a week for the 18 games.
Armstead was listed as a limited participant 17 times, meaning he was a full participant only once — on the Friday before the season opener against the New England Patriots.
Armstead dealt at one time or another in 2022 with toe, pec, knee and hip injuries, but he still ended up playing 13 games in the regular season plus the playoff game at Buffalo.
Maybe most impressively, Armstead started three games — vs. Buffalo, at Cincinnati, at the New York Jets — despite not practicing during the week.
So Armstead's availability for the game against the Chargers on Sunday shouldn't necessarily be gauged by his practice time this week, as head coach Mike McDaniel pointed out in his pre-practice media session Wednesday.
Even for that 2022 opener against New England, Armstead was listed as limited in practice on the Wednesday and Thursday before being a full participant in the Friday practice.
This year, it's an injury that kept Armstead out of the first game-week practice of the season, not the best way to start trying to accomplish his goal of playing every game for the first time in his NFL career.
Unfortunately, missing practice time is nothing unusual for Armstead since he joined the Dolphins. Ultimately, though, what matters is whether he's a full participant on the field Sunday.
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