The Miami Dolphins will try to keep their longshot playoff hopes alive against the dangerous Houston Texans on Sunday with one of the most inexperienced tackle tandems in recent franchise history.
The team announced 90 minutes before kickoff that starting left tackle Terron Armstead (knee) and right tackle Kendall Lamm (back) are both inactive Sunday. Those issues are on top of the season-ending injury starting right tackle Austin Jackson suffered last month.
Miami Dolphins’ Week 15 Mess at Tackle
As a result, the Dolphins are poised to start rookie Patrick Paul at left tackle Sunday and backup Jackson Carman — who entered the game without a single snap on offense in 2024 — at right.
Entering Week 15, Paul had logged just 180 NFL snaps at tackle in his short career. Carman — a second-round pick in 2021 who was on the Dolphins’ practice squad just two weeks ago — has lined up at tackle for just 384 NFL downs.
Against any team, that situation would be a concern.
Against the Texans, that’s a four-alarm fire.
The Texans entered Sunday’s action ranked second on the season in sacks (42). Through their first 13 games, Houston had 233 pressures (with a 10.8% pressure rate).
Leading the charge? Arguably the best edge-rushing tandem in football: Danielle Hunter (10.5 sacks, 10.5% pressure rate) and Will Anderson Jr. (9.5, 15.6%).
What does this all mean? Tua Tagovailoa will need to speed up his league-leading release even more.
Through 14 weeks of the NFL season, Tagovailoa had the league’s shortest time to throw: 2.4 seconds, per Next Gen Stats.
How does Tagovailoa’s time compare to the league average (2.81) in 2024? It’s nearly three standard deviations from the mean.
Translation? His time in the pocket is uniquely short.
The good news for the Dolphins, if there is any? Tua can play even faster.
He got the ball out on average in less than two seconds in the Dolphins’ Week 2 win over the New England Patriots in 2023. In that game, he completed 70% of his attempts and averaged 8.3 yards per attempt.