Miami Dolphins Offensive Tackle Terron Armstead has officially announced his retirement on Saturday leaving the team without their super talent, but oft injured leader. Most fans and the best pay per head services were betting this was going to happen, and even Coach McDaniel was earlier in this offseason quoted that they were planning to proceed in 2025 without Armstead on the roster.
So now that it’s official, what does it mean for the 2025 Phins?
Terron leaves Jackson & Paul in charge
Armstead has had a remarkable career and was one of the few bright spots on our Offensive line, during his time in Miami. The only knock on him was that he was injury prone and missed games each season, but the guy was a warrior that still played many games despite getting hurt. The biggest area where Terron will be missed is his leadership and ability to mentor the younger players on the team. With Campbell and Terron gone, the Dolphins must fill this huge void if they want success this season and going forward.
For a locker room that lacked accountability, losing these two proven veterans and professionals is going to be a big blow for this Dolphins team heading into next season. Miami is going to have limited opportunities to add veteran leadership to this roster because most of the best players have signed to other teams. So, this forces Chris Grier to find these leaders in the 2025 Draft coming up at the end of April and also have some players on this roster step up.
Will Patrick Paul be ready to take over at Tackle
At least Miami had some type of plan in place to deal with the presumed retirement of Armstead, when they drafted 6’7” Tackle Patrick Paul from the University of Houston in the 2nd Round of the last draft. Paul will have some big shoes to fill to replace Terron, but he did appear in all 17 games last year and even started in 3 of them.
With his playing opportunities, Paul allowed 15 pressures, 3 sacks and 5 penalties on his 229 blocking snaps. In comparison Armstead allowed 11 pressures, 3 sacks and 3 penalties but on 501 blocking snaps. Paul ended last year with an overall PFF grade of 44.9, and a 55.8 pass blocking grade, and a 44.1 run blocking grade. Clearly Paul is going to have to improve in all areas, and honestly, it’s anyone’s guess if he is up for the challenge.
On the positive side…
The glass half full way of looking at this, is that Paul was a rookie last year, but at least was able to log some meaningful snaps and play and stay healthy in all 17 games. With a full offseason ahead of him, it’s going to be on Paul to take a significant step forward in Year 2, where he is going to be asked to start and play a lot more.
Paul has the size, but now he just needs to focus on technique and just trying to improve each and every day. The question is, will he? Paul is a crucial piece to the success or failure of the offensive line, and if he struggles then it’s going to be a very long season for Tua and the rest of the offense. We’ve already seen that Austin Jackson can’t be trusted with all his injuries and his poor play.
Patrick Paul has some big shoulders… and he’s going to need them to carry the giant amount that’s depending on him.
What are the rest of the Miami Dolphins News thoughts on whether or not Paul is up for the challenge?
