The Dolphins are moving on from veteran offensive lineman Branden Albert — and shifting 2016 first-round pick Laremy Tunsil from left guard to left tackle — because the club believes it can find a replacement guard on the cheap, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.
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Albert was scheduled to earn nearly $9MM in 2017, funds Miami will now be able to put towards acquiring a new interior offensive lineman. However, given that part of the Dolphins’ calculation in parting ways with Albert was financial, the team isn’t likely to invest the entirety of that savings into guard reinforcements, per Jackson. Indeed, Miami is instead targeting bargains at the position.
With those parameters in place, high-priced options such as Kevin Zeitler, T.J. Lang, Ronald Leary, and Larry Warford are probably not on Miami’s radar. As such, one player who could make sense for the Dolphins is free agent Patrick Omameh, who played under Miami head coach Adam Gase with Chicago in 2015, writes Jackson. Omameh, 27, graded as the No. 31 guard in the league last season on 454 snaps with Jacksonville, per Pro Football Focus.
While the Dolphins want to secure a free agent to handle one guard spot, Miami is likely to fill the other side with an amalgamation of Kraig Urbik, Anthony Steen, and a draft pick, per Jackson. Veteran Jermon Bushrod, who played more than 1,000 snaps for the Fins last season, is a free agent and may not be retained, though he’s indicated he’d like to continue his career.
They need to take that $ & pick up TJ Lang if we want to have a great running game & protection for R. Tannehill then we need a top 5 Oline with good depth. Ajayi needs a Oline like Dallas has imagine what Ajayi would do behind a line that good OMG he’d make Elliott look like R. Bush.
No. No he wouldn’t.
Dallas would still have a better O-Line and Elliot would still be better than Ajayi.
Larry fultz was saying if Miami had a offensive line like Dallas has, there’s no telling how many yards he would have had , he didn’t start until what the fifth game and still ran for over 1200 plus on a dinged up line , if he had Dallas line and started every game where looking at close to 2000 yards he had three 200 yard games on miami’s line
havent they been trying “bargains” at OG for years now?? they lucked out and had Tunsil man one spot last year and had Bushrod at the other as a “bargain” that wasnt very good.
they dont have to break the bank, but how about getting some quality at the position?!! the o-line will be the key to this team this season and i dont think its very smart hoping” they find the right guys on the cheap.
I agree larry,,tj n Logan ryan