The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

On the surface, not a fan of this move. He has very limited experience at Center and he had a very good year at Guard, which is what we signed him to do. Deiter was....serviceable. Now, it looks like he is the odd man out with Robert Hunt/Liam Eichenberg filling out the RG/RT spots in whichever order and Austin Jackson at LG? Maybe Austin bombs and Deiter wins the job in camp?

We'll see how it plays out. I'm not envisioning a Doomsday scenario but I was hoping we could limit the O-Line shuffling this year.

As of right now it's:
LT - Armstead
LG - Eichenberg
C - Williams
RG - Hunt
RT - Jackson

I'm sure that's subject to change, but that's what they were doing in camp.

I am not a fan of Austin as RT. He is probably the weakest starter we have now. With a whole new offensive line coach and staff and system, I am willing to be open minded but of those 5, Hunt is our best RT. I know the argument for leaving him at the spot he was good at but it's Tua's blind side. All the upgrades don't matter if Jackson is a turnstile and Tua is running for his life again.

If Eichenberg can have a good year between two veterans, all spots aside from RT look to be very strong.

Was there some recent development?  Williams signed with the Dolphins back in March.

Reports by the Miami Herald and also based off of training camps so far.

I'd rather see Jackson at G and Hunt at RT, but I'll trust they know what they're doing for now.

I trust that if Jackson sucks at his 3rd position in 3 years during training camp, he won't be our Week 1 RT. McDaniel doesn't want to start off the new era with a 6 sack performance against Tua.

It is a lot harder to transition from G to C, then C to G. 

I know, which is why I think if Jackson or other pieces struggle in preseason, they will shift Deiter back to Center, Connor to Guard and whoever sucks the most is on the bench.

It's hard for me to get too excited either way about this stuff so far out. I'm giving everyone a new slate under these new competent coaches until they prove otherwise. The hope is the two guys we made the high draft picks for are serviceable in Eichenberg and Jackson. Williams was back up center in Dallas so it isn't like it's an alien position for him. The biggest question for me is if we ever find out why Soloman Kindley didn't get to play last year and if he will this year.

I 100% forgot about Solomon and his mysterious disappearance. Sadly, I haven't heard a thing about him so far. I thught it was just Flores being an asshole but if he is still MIA, then I fear it is some emotional or personal issue because his performance warranted playing time. Especially with our terrible O-Line last year.

I suspect this has something to do with Williams's athleticism and how it impacts the run game.  The center is very often the lineman moving to the second level to block LBs in the run game, and I suspect McDaniel and company identified Williams as someone with the athleticism to do that and targeted him for the center position all along.

https://ras.football/2019/12/26/connor-williams-ras/

New WR/Special Teamer Trent Sherfield was on Joe Rose this morning and spoke about how McDaniel has offensive lineman doing things they don't normally do like moving out and getting to blocks not normally expected. I'm guessing athleticism is going to be very important.

I think McDaniel himself said this is a very athletic O-Line. So, we definitely got some new schemes going on and thank God for that. IF the coaching is good and the players are good, we pretty much got our whole line set for at least 3 years. That would be amazing.

Kindley is probably going to get cut.  He's a straight-line mover, but doesn't have the athleticism for this scheme.

He is a 3rd year 4th rounder, so he is probably making close to nothing. Good insurance to have, doubt he gets cut.

Kindley is a mauler who reminds me of Richie Incognito. I am hoping he works out his issues.

Big man Raekwon Davis gave his eye-witness account of Conner Williams’ progress at center.

“He’s been great,” Davis said. “We’ve been going back and forth and really competing and challenging each other every day. He’s been pushing me, I’ve been pushing him. It’s kind of like a fair match right now.”

That's saying a lot since Davis is an absolute monster

Drew Rosenhaus said that Dallas always thought Willimas was  best at center but in the end felt he helped them the most at guard. Said the Dolphins did their research and came to the same conclusion. He followed up it's possible he could becaome an all-pro center. Agent speak for sure but he did say it. Either way it sounds like the Dolphins had a plan of him playing center since before they worked out a deal. 

Doesn't this create a hole at guard?

Not neccesarily a hole but yes, someone has to play guard. Right now the lead on that is Liam Eichenberg. He, Austin, and Hunt are expected to be starters again this year.