By no means did we have a weak offensive line last season, yet while at camp that was the one area I noticed we were struggling with the most. Things don’t seem to have changed much since I was last down there and there’s still somewhat of a game of musical chairs being played in some positions. Some of the best plays we have seen in camp have come after what would’ve been sacks and although our defense is indeed getting stronger I am ready for the line to hold long and strong to give Henne the time he needs to get to the receivers without going down and to open up hold for our RBs. Tonight’s game should provide some answers and as to who is better suited to fill each position and hopefully we’ll start to see the pieces coming together with enough time to fine tune by the start of the season.

Cs

It became apparent early on in training camp that the center position was open and the guys would be fighting for the starting role. Jake Grove was the starter last season, until an injury took him out, and just a week into training camp he would suffer another injury that although not season ending would probably help to establish him as the team’s backup. Grove has been a key player in the Dolphins O-line, especially when it comes to our running game since he has proved he has excellent run blocking abilities, unfortunately his inability to stay healthy prevents him from being relied upon. Considering Sparano said he is looking for toughness at this position I believe it will be extremely difficult for Grove to reclaim that starter spot and wouldn’t be surprised to see him fall further back in the depth chart depending on what Hartline can deliver during the preseason.

That starter job seems to be all but locked by Joe Berger who has been filling in the role exclusively ever since Grove suffered his leg injury; even after Grove returned to camp it would be Berger who would continue to take reps with the first team. Berger got the opportunity to start at center in six games this past season and proved at the time that although a backup he was ready to fulfill the role fulltime, something that he would come to do immediately and seamlessly so I expect we will get a lot of production from him at the position during the season.

Andrew Hartline also seems to be coming along great in his development, even earning praise from Sparano a couple of times. Hartline had the opportunity to showcase what he could do with both the first and second team when Grove went down for a few days and continued to run drills with the second team even after Grove returned, so although the starter job seems to be taken, It seems as though there is still some competition when it comes to filling that second spot and both the guys fighting for it are solid players so I don’t think the center position is something we should be too worried about at the moment.

Gs

The guard position is the one place where we have seen the most movement so far, and according to Sparano the race between the players is so close it’ll be hard to determine who the winners will be until very close to the start of the season. One guy who has made a big impression is third round draft pick John Jerry. Jerry was the only offensive player the Dolphins picked up in the draft and with his size he seems to be the perfect fit to stand right next to Jake Long. Jerry has been the only guy taking reps as a starter for RG so far but that doesn’t mean he’s a lock for the starting job, according to Sparano he wants to see what this guy can do against the best he can present, there’s a lot of tape on some of the other guys on the team but Jerry needs to be challenged and Sparano has made sure he gets challenged, the best part is that he seems to be coming along really well. It’ll be interesting to see how he performs on tonight’s game, since it will definitely play a factor on where he ends up in the team.

Richie Incognito is without a doubt the player with the biggest attitude in the locker room, not only has he been fighting teammates, but he has been fighting to earn his spot as well. At the start of training camp Incognito found himself being used exclusively as a RG and falling to the spot behind Jerry as the backup, it wasn’t until recently that he got moved to LG and has finally moved up to take reps as a starter. Still, even though he is listed first I the depth roster there is no guarantee he will remain there and just like everyone else he has something to prove tonight.

Donald Thomas is the guy most closely competing with Incognito for the LG position. He’s been working almost exclusively on the left side and had moved up to replace Procter at the position prior to Incognito being moved. The difference between Thomas and Incognito lies in their agility and their ability to infiltrate and pull defenders on the other side. Regardless of what happens, I expect both of them to make the team.

Cory Procter who at the beginning of camp was being worked as the starting LG has recently been taking reps as Jerry’s backup on the right hand side and doing a good job at it, if he continues to perform he will become part of the 53 man roster, and just like the other three, I believe he will be given a chance to prove what he has out there on the field tonight.

Ts

Three year veteran and Pro-Bowler Jake Long faces no competition at LT, there are very few guys out there who are capable of beating Long and that has been proven at camp repeatedly over the past few days were I think you’d be press to find a time when he has made a mistake. Long is without a doubt the most reliable guy we have in the offensive line and Henne should not be worried about protection on that side too much because Long has done nothing but kept him safe and will continue to do so. At 25 years old Long will continue to get better every season, and there will be more Pro-Bowl appearances for him in the future

Vernon Carey who also seemed to have locked in his position as starting RT has been out of camp for a few days recently nursing a leg injury. The severity of the injury is not known but whether or not he plays tonight will be telling. Although he’s had a couple of rough days in camp, Carey is the player best suited to stand opposite Long on the line so hopefully he will be fully recovered and ready to go at the start of the season.

Nate Gardner has shown to be the most promising backup, not only as a tackle where he is listed as a backup to Carey, but also as a guard where he was used for a stretch of time. Yet Wednesday, Gardner walked off the field limping and was later seen in crutches, furthermore, he was not in practice the next day. Although apparently he doesn’t seem to have suffered a major injury it is hard to tell how long he will be out but losing him will be extremely detrimental to the team.

Lyndon Murtha and Andrew Gardner are the other backup tackles on the team, and both of them have been used as RGs as well. it’ll be interesting to see what they can do once they get thrown into action, so I’m hoping we can see some good things come out of them tonight.

The addition of Brandon Marshall and the promise of Henne, have made the expectations for this Dolphins’ offense increase tenfold from what they were last season; to win games we need to score and to be able to score we need a line that can hold so expect all these pieces of the offense to come together before the start of the season, and once they do watch out because this will be a Dolphins offense which we have never seen before.

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I want to give special thanks to the Dolfan Bandits and Marky Marc from WQAM for the updates they have been providing on the page and which have been invaluable in adding to my camp information on the days I haven't been out there.

Also, I recently started a facebook page for the blog so if you enjoy reading I hope you'll join:http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Phins-2-Phins/144135708947740?ref=ts