Miami Dolphins offensive line review: Tracking the guards in Week 8

Despite a glorious halftime lead and a legitimate chance to pull off a second consecutive win against a divisional opponent, the Dolphins faltered against the Patriots last Sunday. Still, we probably learn more from losses than wins, and this remains a season focused on learning and development.

That is especially true along the offensive line, where rookie left guard Kadyn Proctor and second-year right guard Jonah Savaiinaea are important pieces of the team’s future. How are they performing this season? Each week, we take a closer look at the guards and what is being said about their most recent performance.

The first thing we learned is that the offensive line was out of sorts without Kadyn Proctor.

Maybe it was a coincidence, the result of good defensive scheming or an intentionally deflated football (#neverforget), but the offensive line never seemed to operate as a cohesive unit against the Patriots. And the stats back that up. Not that sacks and run efficiency tell the whole story, but let’s look at the team performance since Week 4, when Ollie Gordon first took over as the featured running back:

And against the Patriots?

As a team, the Dolphins’ yards-per-carry was a season-low 3.2 last Sunday.

How much of that dip in performance is due to Proctor’s absence? It’s hard to say for sure, but I’m sure we’re all happy Proctor has cleared concussion protocol and is back in the lineup against the Lions.

As for Jonah Savaiinaea, this was also a game to forget. Not only did he pick up his first penalty of the season (a holding call in the second quarter), but his overall PFF grade was the lowest of this week’s five starters on the offensive line, including Proctor’s replacement, Jarrett Kingston. Just looking at the PFF trends above, after his two best games in September against the 49ers and Chiefs, he’s turned in below-average grades in each of his last four appearances. Even if you’re not a believer in PFF grading, OL Coach Eric Smith in his weekly YouTube offensive line review (see the link below) also noted that Savaiinaea’s play has fallen off since September, and that his performance last week was reminiscent of 2025, when Jonah was statistically one of the worst guards in the league.

My theory is that because the lines (offensive and defensive) function more as a unit, their performance is going to be impacted more by the absence of a starter than, say, the wide receiver room. I guess we can put that theory to the test this Sunday.

The tracker will be updated each week throughout the season. For a more in-depth breakdown of Proctor’s and Savaiinaea’s performance, check out offensive line Coach Eric Smith’s film analysis of the game, which you can find on his YouTube channel, Focused on Fins.