The seriously banged-up Miami Dolphins may have finally caught a break.
Offensive tackle Terron Armstead appears to have avoided the worst-case scenario after leaving Thursday night’s game with a shoulder injury.
Armstead tried to gut out a return to action after getting hurt but ultimately determined he wasn’t helping his team by playing through the issue.
The Latest on Miami Dolphins OT Terron Armstead
“I think there was a classic Armstead moment where I think he was battling,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Friday. “If we would have allowed his competitive nature to kind of overtake the process, I could see where he would go back in the game in a situation if he was fighting for it; however, he knew something was wrong.”
So what’s the outlook for the left tackle who has missed 11 of a possible 34 regular season games due to injury since signing with the Dolphins before the 2022 season?
“I’m optimistic that it will be something where he’ll be playing here sooner than later, but realistically I don’t totally know besides the fact that it doesn’t look like it’s the worst-case scenario where you’re worried about the season and stuff,” McDaniel said. “It’s not in that realm, so we’ll get more information here today.”
When Armstead left the game, the Dolphins’ offensive line immediately got worse. The Dolphins had Kendall Lamm replace Armstead at left tackle, and he had some rough moments.
So why did the Dolphins go with Lamm instead of rookie Patrick Paul, a talented-but-still-green second-round pick out of Houston?
“I think he’s definitely capable,” McDaniel said. “I think you have to take into account, and in certain situations or if it was a different opponent in a different situation, I think I would’ve been more open-minded to that.
“In that situation, I think when you are coming off the bench as a rookie for the first time in a division game where there’s a lot of frustration based upon how we were coming into the game as a team with our expectations and then what was happening; I get fearful if I can help it from setting people up in positions of failure.
“And what do I mean by that, is I think teammates feel – inevitably in football you have good plays and bad plays, but in games like that if it’s your first taste, I try to avoid guys getting their first burn in the regular season in a situation like that. So that was the decision behind that. It was definitely considered, but I just thought it was best to go the direction we did with the experience and the productivity that Kendall was giving.”