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Few guards in recent Miami Dolphins history will be welcomed as much as James Daniels, the free agent signee from Pittsburgh.
Two months ago, Miami general manager Chris Grier, who within the past year chastised the media for fretting about the offensive line, acknowlwdged it’s time for the Dolphins to “invest” in the offensive line.
Daniels, the 27-year-old seven-year veteran who was limited to four games last season due to an Achilles injury, is a big part of that investment.
Daniels said Tuesday during a Zoom call with reporters he’ll be fully healthy for the season opener in September. And he said he’s aware of the expectations.
“You understand you’re being signed to a team for the reason. … I understand the position I’m in,” he said.
Part of that understanding is because of the money. Daniels’ three-year, $24 million contract represents the biggest investment of free agency for the cash-strapped Dolphins.
But his role could be worth more.
There’s a growing number of defensive tackles able to rush the quarterback nowadays. Good guard play provides a solid wall of defense.
Also, the Dolphins haven’t been able to effectively run between the tackles recently, particularly in short-yardage situations. Again, good guard play can help change that outcome.
McDaniel, speaking at the NFL scouting combine last month, said it’s a good year to want to improve your offensive line.
“It’s time for us to invest in that position, and (we’re) excited to,” he said. “I would expect it to surface itself in both free agency and the draft.”
Daniels will likely team with a rookie draftee guard to patch up the shortcomings at that position.
Guard is an area many fans feel is the No. 2 thing keeping the Dolphins offense from fulfilling its potential, with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s health being No. 1.
Dolphins fans have been complaining about guards for the past three years.
Robert Hunt, now with Carolina, was the gold standard but Miami was unable to re-sign him.
Aside from him, there’s primarily been Isaiah Wynn, Liam Eichenberg, Robert Jones and Lester Cotton.
Daniels is well-schooled at guard, both left and right.
He’s also dabbled at center, with that coming in 2019 and 2020.
Daniels, a 2018 second-round pick by the Bears, played mostly left guard between 2018-20, the latter season ending early due to a pectoral muscle injury.
Daniels played right guard in 2021, his final season with the Bears.
He continued playing right guard for Pittsburgh for three seasons.
While there he teamed with tackle Larry Borom, who also signed with the Dolphins as a free agent this offseason.
“He helped me out a ton my rookie year,” Borom said. “I played next to him on the right side. He’s everything you want out of a teammate.”
Daniels could play right or left guard for the Dolphins. Both are open.
However, you could make the argument that it makes more sense for Daniels to play left guard, so he could team with young left tackle Patrick Paul, the 2024 second-round pick who is basically a rookie considering he only played 337 snaps (37 percent of the Dolphins’ offensive snaps) from scrimmage last season.
If Daniels played right guard, there’s a chance the left side of the offensive line would have a rookie draftee at guard and Paul at left tackle, possibly making the team vulnerable.
On the other hand, if Daniels stayed at right guard he’d team with right tackle Austin Jackson to protect Tagovailoa’s blind side, and they could provide a definite strong side for the run game.
Daniels said he hasn’t been told whether he’ll play left or right guard.
“They’re still figuring things out,” he said, adding it’ll probably be settled during organized team activities, minicamp and training camp.
By the way, whatever you think of Daniels as a player, it’s hard to question his availability.
Yes, he had an Achilles injury in the final year of his contract.
“Honestly, it’s brutal,” he said of unfortunate timing of the ailment.
The injury prevented him from getting, say, $17.5 million a year such as Minnesota guard Will Fries, who was formerly with Indianapolis.
Although Daniels is coming off a season-ending Achilles injury and had the season-ending pectoral injury in 2020, he’s played 100 percent of his team’s snaps in three of his seven seasons — 2019, 2021-22.
Grier said in January they wouldn’t necessarily be deterred by a player’s injury history, and signing Daniels is evidence of that mentality.
“There’s always risk in signing players,” Grier said. “But you also don’t want to miss the opportunity of adding a good player to your roster and being afraid to make a move and missing out on someone that may become a really good player for you because you’re scared of something that happened a couple of years ago.”
