When Miami Dolphins right tackle Austin Jackson went down during the team’s season opener against the New England Patriots, Greg Little was able to step up and was serviceable. However, when Terron Armstead then went down during the Week 5 matchup with the New York Jets, the line began to break down.
Little eventually flipped over to the left side on Sunday to fill in for Armstead, and he received an abysmal 1.5 pass-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus.
Now, everybody wants to know when Miami’s anchors on the outside will be back. On Monday, head coach Mike McDaniel provided a small update on the topic.
“With both guys for individual reasons – I feel good about where Armstead got without playing in the game,” McDaniel said. “I thought that helped him and he’s a guy that as he works through this stuff, he’ll be day to day. But I know he really, really wants to be out there and I’m fully confident that if he’s capable, he’ll be out there. So I would say it was a step in the right direction for him not to play because he had been gritting through a lot of stuff. So I feel good about that.
“With Austin, we’re really, when you think about a high-ankle sprain or a low-ankle sprain or really anything with an ankle; that for an offensive lineman, is a tough injury. You can feel better, but then now you have to go lean on a 300-pound individual and try to displace them. And that force from ground up is challenging. He didn’t have any setbacks, so I feel good about that.
“It’s more about being judicious with that process so we don’t put himself in a position where he has any setbacks moving forward, or he doesn’t all of a sudden, we put him in a position where he’s super vulnerable in a game and isn’t able to complete it, which is tough with the active roster selection. So we’ll be monitoring that and a lot of guys have gotten good reps and are getting better in their place so hopefully we’ll get one or two of them back this week. If not, we’ll just keep getting better with the players on the field.”
Jackson returned to practice last week, starting his 21-day window to be activated from injured reserve. If he’s not back by the end of the three weeks, he will be forced to miss the remainder of the season.
One guy who’s really looking to get Armstead and Jackson back is right guard Robert Hunt, who spoke about their absence on Monday.
“It would be exciting to get those guys back but like we’ve been saying, it’s always the next man up mentality,” Hunt said. “Unfortunately, injuries happen in this league and some guys can’t go, and that’s been the case for those two guys and guys have stepped up. I think guys have done a good job stepping up, playing well. So you know that is what it is. If they come back, man we’ll be fired up and if they can’t go because of something that’s going on with their body, we got to understand that and the next one is up.”
Hopefully, with an extra week of rest, Miami’s two tackles with be back on the field against Pittsburgh.
