HOUSTON — Talk about a roller-coaster 90 minutes for the Miami Dolphins and their star offensive tackle Terron Armstead here Thursday.
Armstead was visibly dejected and unable to put weight on his right leg after getting tangled up in the first rep of team drills against the Houston Texans.
After sitting on a medical table for a good 15 minutes, his head hanging as Dolphins GM Chris Grier gave words of encouragement, Armstead headed into the examination room on a cart.
But a little over an hour later, Armstead was in much better spirits. He posted a video of him walking out of the Texans’ medical center and, on his way to the team buses via a cart, smiled and waved to a Miami-based reporter.
Thanks for the love and support! 💙 always! pic.twitter.com/dhthJaH2dO
— T. Stead 🎤🎧 (@T_Armstead72) August 17, 2023
Moments later, a tweet from NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe explained Armstead’s change in demeanor.
“I’ll be good,” Armstead texted Wolfe.
Did Miami Dolphins Avoid Disaster With Terron Armstead News?
Armstead will of course go for an MRI to make sure the medical team’s manual evaluation is accurate. But assuming it is, the Dolphins have to feel like they caught an enormous break.
However, they shouldn’t rest too easily because they won’t always be so fortunate. Heck, Miami’s already had some pretty terrible luck just three weeks into training camp.
Jalen Ramsey is out until December after suffering a significant knee injury during the second day of practice this summer.
While losing Ramsey was a body blow, Armstead going down for the season might have been a knockout punch for a Dolphins offense that was not the same in games in which he missed in 2022.
As in, a touchdown worse per game in the ones he missed.
Tyreek Hill on Terron Armstead injury pic.twitter.com/mjJj1NRSLT
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) August 17, 2023
“We all know, man,” Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill said after Thursday’s practice. “I need those other guys, you know, for me to be able to make plays, and I feel like offensive line and defensive line are the most important people on the field.
“Obviously receivers, with success, we get the glory, we get the Instagram followers and all that, but Terron is a huge part of our team, you know, and I feel like he’s more important than I am,” Hill added. “The left side, we need somebody to really hold that side down and just to see him go down, which I think is not serious.
“I’m sure he’ll shake back. He’ll be straightened out. As soon as I went up to him, I went over to him and said, ‘You straight?’ He said, ‘I’m straight. I’m just old.'”
Old, you can work around. Old and injury-prone? That’s a bad combination. And even if Armstead gets all good news from the imaging, he still might be in danger of missing the team’s season opener against the Chargers in 24 days.
A Flawed Miami Dolphins Plan?
That possibility highlights just how tenuous the Dolphins’ hopes are, considering their roster compensation. Their 10 best players might be better than any team’s in football. But three — Ramsey, Armstead, and Jaylen Waddle — are already hurt.
And again, the regular season is still nearly a month off.
Seventeen games is a long time to hold one’s breath and cross one’s fingers, particularly on offense.
The Dolphins’ secondary has done an excellent job responding to the loss of Ramsey, and for two weeks now, they’ve outplayed the Falcons and Texans in joint practices.
“I do think the versatility of Kader [Kohou] has really shown out,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Thursday. “There’s been some different, I don’t know, personnel sets where guys have been able to be a little more versatile, like Elijah [Campbell].
“We have the right guys here, and there’s a lot of new guys to the system,” he added. “Every single day, someone will come up with me, make another play. Just like Eli Apple did his first day that he was here. So that development is ongoing, but overall the secondary is doing a good job getting better every day.”
That’s all good stuff. But it’s not particularly sustainable if (when?) more injuries hit. The Dolphins have four players on offense that are can’t-lose: Armstead, Waddle, Hill, and Tua Tagovailoa.
Will all four stay healthy for the entire season? It’s possible. But it’s not super likely.