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Marcel Louis-Jacques
Miami Gardens: In less than a week, the Miami Dolphins lost almost 30 years of NFL experience.
Neither the defensive liner Calais Campbell nor the Left Terron Armstead will return to the Dolphins costumes in 2025 after signing a one -year contract with the Arizona cardinals and withdrawing, respectively. His game leaves Miami without two captains of the 2024 team team, and without the only player on the last season list with more than a decade of experience in the NFL (Campbell), although both Jalen Ramsey, Tyreek Hill and Artie Burns will reach that milestone this season.
Campbell and Armstead were two of the most respected voices in the Miami wardrobe last season. Their leadership wobbles for being irreplaceable, but dolphins need someone to do exactly.
“He is a collection man. You have a lot of knowledge that goes at the same time,” Armstead said at his retirement party on Saturday. “Calais and I, we have definitely seen a lot of ball, we have seen many players, we have seen many interactions, we have seen many conflicts, all that. So we can speak through certain things. Now with both of us, knowledge is there. The base has been established. The line or knows what the job takes. I entered and influenced so early, every day they are there.
Replace Armstead in the left Tackle will probably be a second round of 2024, Patrick Paul, who started three games as a rookie last season.
Paul said he was ready for paper when asked in February and that he obtained Armstead’s approval, since the two met last season.
“It’s his time. He knows it,” Armstead said. “Pat Paul will do his part. I promise you. He will do his part. He will work his butt.”
From the point of view of leadership, the Dolphins believe they have the successor of Armstead in the former first round Austin Jackson, who signed an extension of three years in 2023, but lost nine games with a knee injury last season.
Jackson is the oldest player of the team in the offensive line and must lead a group that will probably introduce three new headlines in the left Tackle, the left guard and the right guard.
The other side of the ball has an obvious candidate: the defensive Tackle Zach Sieler, who was captain last season and has registered 10 captures in each of the last two seasons.
Together and behind Sieer on the defensive line it is not so clear. Miami again signed Benito Jones, but he, Sieer, Matt Dickerson and Neil Farrell are the only defensive liners currently in the Dolphins list.
The team is likely to address the position with one or more of its 10 draft selections at the end of this month.
This pending change in leadership occurs three months after several Dolphins players and coach Mike McDaniel admit the need for more responsibility within the locker room. Several players were fined several times last season to be late for meetings, to a point where McDaniel said he would need to find a more effective punitive measure.
Other voices respected in the locker room, such as the wing closed Jonnu Smith, supporter Jordyn Brooks or the offensive guard Aaron Brewer are also candidates to replace one of the three captains parties of a season ago; The supporter David Long Jr. was voted as a captain, but was released in the middle of the season.
It is also fair to wonder if Hill will be voted as a captain for the fourth consecutive year after the events at the end of last season. He retired from the defeat of the team’s season against the New York Jets before suggesting journalists after the game he wanted to play elsewhere. The Dolphins General Manager, Chris Grier, said that Hill never requested an exchange and Hill apologized and retracted his comments in February.
The low season of Hill went out to the avant -garde last week when police officers responded to a domestic dispute at the Hill residence and his wife. Hill’s mother -in -law called 911 to inform a “assault on progress” during an argument between him and his wife, but no charges were presented.
McDaniel told journalists at the annual NFL meeting in March that he would be encouraged if Hill were voted as captain this summer.
“They would pump me if I was voted Captain, because I think Tyreek is responsible for who is as a competitor and what he has learned on his trip,” said McDaniel, “I think that means that his teammates have seen him completely, that everyone has made the teammates completely of the whole process of the whole process of ‘Hello, I am a human being. This is correct. This is how I want to do things like things.
“So, for me, that would show a healthy evolution … You have teammates you love, they do something they repent or maybe they would like to have done again. Well, then you give them the opportunity to demonstrate otherwise, and I think that is what Tyreek is up to the challenge. Tyreek wants to establish the standard of what we have the type of competitors.
The Dolphins process to find their new leadership promoted by players will begin the first day of their low season program, next Monday, April 21.
