Offensive tackle Terron Armstead had a solid, albeit painful, first season for the Miami Dolphins after signing a $75 million contract with the team in the 2022 offseason.
You could argue that beyond Tua Tagovailoa, there was no more valuable player on the Dolphins’ offense than Armstead.
So it’s fair to believe that the Dolphins will go as far as Armstead’s health allows them in 2023.
Miami Dolphins’ Terron Armstead 2023 Outlook
The Dolphins’ 2022 splits with and without Armstead are ridiculous.
In the 11 regular-season games in which the four-time Pro Bowler logged 50% or more of the Dolphins’ offensive snaps, Miami averaged 25.9 points per game, 6.7 yards per play, and allowed a sack once every 22.3 pass attempts.
In the six games in which he didn’t reach that participation rate, the Dolphins’ respective averages were 18.7, 5.3, and 11.9.
What’s more, Armstead made the Pro Bowl despite being injury-diminished basically the entire season.
“A lot of it came from the foot injury Week 1,” Armstead said back in January. “The body being such a machine and too smart at times, you get into compensation with muscles starting to shut down and start to affect other things. So like, I’ve been dealing with my right leg, really. So just trying to get everything to a point of strength and function, and then if I can push and I can drive, I’m going.”
In fairness, the Dolphins also were without Tagovailoa for four of the six games in which Armstead missed significant snaps. So it would be foolish to attribute all of that drop-off to Armstead.
Still, the regard in which the Dolphins hold Armstead is obvious.
They know their best chance to make a deep run is having Armstead on the field — which surely was a factor in their decision to keep him off the field during minicamp.
“He’s been having a good offseason,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said during OTAs. “I try to honor all the players with not really putting their business out on the street unnecessarily. I have no reservations about where he’s at. He has had his fill of watching practice, so he’s done everything in his power, and I look forward to seeing him in training camp, and I haven’t been given any reason to have hesitancy to this point at all.”
Expectations for Terron Armstead in 2023
History suggests Armstead, like Tagovailoa, will likely miss time again due to injuries in 2022.
The Dolphins just need to keep both as healthy as possible — and available when the games mean the most.
The Dolphins should keep him in bubble wrap for much of training camp and the entire preseason. They should give him veteran rest days throughout the regular season.
And they should pull him from games that are out of reach in the fourth quarter.
A reasonable comp for Armstead?
Branden Albert in 2015. Albert, like Armstead, was a big-money free agent signing.
Albert, like Armstead, missed time almost every year due to injury.
But the Dolphins were able to do more than simply get Albert — at age 31 — through the season. He started 14 games, the most in any of his final five NFL seasons, and made his final Pro Bowl.
If the Dolphins get the same outcome from Armstead — who turns 32 next week — in 2023, they should have one of the best offenses in football.