MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Liam Eichenberg thought he finally had a home on the Miami Dolphins‘ offensive line. But as Wednesday reminded us once again, plans — and on-field residences — are only as solid as the next play.
After working the entire training camp as the Dolphins’ starting right guard, Eichenberg could be on the move again.
Miami Dolphins-Atlanta Falcons Aug. 7 Joint Practice Report
Dolphins center Aaron Brewer did not return after leaving Wednesday’s joint workout with the Atlanta Falcons with an injury. Certainly, it’s too early to speculate the severity of Brewer’s injury, but it’s hard to envision anyone but Eichenberg starting Week 1 if Brewer cannot play.
Based on his comments just hours before Brewer’s injury, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel certainly doesn’t prefer that. Miami wanted to give Eichenberg every opportunity to be its season-long right guard in 2024.
“The next step for him to find where his ceiling is as a player is in an offense that he knows forward and backwards, with all of the tools that he learned when you’re starting at center for this offense in terms of the calls and the different problem solving you have to do,” McDaniel said.
“For our team, it best serves us to really allow him that unique opportunity of stability and reps in one spot to see where his technique can go. That is for the Dolphins. We think that we’d be hard-pressed to know exactly what that would be like because he hasn’t had that advantage necessarily based upon the last two years of the whole group.”
McDaniel went on to praise the “quality work” he’s seen from starting left guard Robert Jones — or “a new Rob Jones,” as he put it — and Lester Cotton, who’s “doing a phenomenal job.”
If Brewer’s absence is extended, expect those three to make up the Dolphins’ interior offensive line, particularly if Isaiah Wynn isn’t ready for the opener.
“I think they had a good mix of guys,” Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said of the Dolphins’ offensive line. “They’re physical, they’re fast. And I think they do a really, really good job in their run game of giving us different looks and just really kind of unorthodox things sometimes that really challenges your principles and the things you gotta do to be able to stop the run.
“They do a good job and I think I like how they rotated their guys, gave everybody a good look.”
One more point on Eichenberg: He has started 38 games and logged 2,551 snaps in the last three years, even though he has allowed over 100 pressures in his NFL career.
Fight Night (During the Day)
The Falcons and Dolphins stayed on their best behavior for as long as they could this week. But at some point, hitting each other for two hours straight in near-triple-digit heat index frays even the strongest nerves.
So it was almost inevitable that two more fights broke out Wednesday after one skirmish the day before. Each time, the Dolphins’ defense and Falcons’ offense mixed it up, and unlike Tuesday, a punch or two might even have been thrown during one of Wednesday’s dustups.
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The emotions are usually the highest on the second of two straight joint practice days, and that was certainly the case this week.
Dolphins cornerback Kendall Fuller was asked if two joint practices against the same team is one too many.
“As much as I can say, no, I can also see that a lot of time the second day is usually that day. I’ve [also] been a part of some practices where the first day is the same way. So I think it’s a part of football. You got the one percent of guys that, you know, it takes a certain mentality to get here.
“So you put that many guys on the field at one time, some things are bound to happen. But at the end of the day, if you can keep it at a minimum, we can come out here and do good work, get good work against a different opponent. At the end of the day I love it. In that midst, you get into that process of training camp and to be able to go against a different jersey, different group of guys, different offense is definitely fun.”
- Neither the Dolphins’ offense or defense was as sharp as it was Tuesday, but that’s to be expected given how many players were missing Wednesday: WRs Jaylen Waddle, Braxton Berrios, Erik Ezukanma, and Anthony Schwartz; OT Terron Armstead; DBs Jordan Poyer (who, according to his wife, is a dealing with a thumb injury) and Cam Smith; RB Salvon Ahmed; LB Mo Kamara; and DL Calais Campbell and Benito Jones.