There’s little mystery surrounding Terron Armstead’s availability for the Miami Dolphins’ Week 15 game against the Houston Texans. Based on Mike McDaniel’s comments Monday, odds are quite good that Armstead will miss just his second game of 2024 with a knee injury that has bothered him for some time.
And the injury’s timing is about as bad as it gets.
The Dolphins’ Week 15 opponent is the Houston Texans, who have statistically the best pass-rush tandem in the NFL in Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr.
Miami Dolphins’ Offensive Line Issues
Hunter and Anderson rank fourth and seventh league-wide in sacks with 10.5 and 9.5, respectively. They have 97 combined pressures in 13 games.
Anderson generates pressure on 15.6% of his pass-rush snaps; Hunter’s pass-rush rate is 13.7%. And they’re about to face off against a pair of backup offensive tackles.
Kendall Lamm has been the Dolphins’ starting right tackle since Miami put Austin Jackson on injured reserve a month ago. But offensive line coach Butch Barry has been able to hold things together because the Dolphins still had Armstead, who has been in the lineup for 12 of the Dolphins’ 13 games this year, despite fighting through a chronic knee issue.
On Sunday, Armstead’s body hit its limit. His discomfort and/or instability simply became too much. Armstead pulled himself from Sunday’s win over the New York Jets early in the game, tried unsuccessfully to fight through it a few plays later, and then ultimately shut it down for the day.
On Monday, McDaniel didn’t rule out Armstead playing this week against the Texans — a must-win game for a team with less than a 30% chance of making the playoffs — but you didn’t need a degree in English to read between these lines.
“I think you might have seen his frustration level, trying to contribute in this particular game,” McDaniel said. “… I’ve been very proud of how he’s handled all of it, because he’s probably at a new level of maturity to handle these type of things, based upon his necessity.
“I think we’ll let it cool down a little bit, and what that means for time moving forward, I’m gonna make sure that my communication is steadfast with him, and we’ll play out all the scenarios with our group.”
Translation? Barring a dramatic reversal in Armstead’s health, it’ll be rookie Patrick Paul starting at left tackle and Lamm at right Sunday in Houston.
Lamm shouldn’t be the concern — or at least the biggest one. He’s been basically a third starter at tackle the last two seasons, logging 997 of a possible 1,960 snaps.
Plus, there’s been no noticeable drop-off in production from Jackson to Lamm. Before his injury, Jackson allowed 15 pressures and three sacks on 294 pass block-snaps. In 2024, Lamm has surrendered 12 pressures but no sacks on 246 pass-block snaps.
The real concern is on the left side.
Armstead has been fabulous this season, allowing just one sack and 11 pressures in 376 pas- block snaps (2.9% pressure rate). Compare that to Paul, Miami’s second-round pick who was raw coming out of Houston: two sacks, seven pressures on 96 pass-block snaps (7.3%).
Tua Tagovailoa already has a quick internal clock. His average time to throw is just 2.4 seconds. Can Paul and Lamm hold up that long against Hunter and Anderson on Sunday?
The Dolphins’ season will depend on it.