Miami's problem has been that they don't have anyone who can recognize and evaluate O-line talent. Over the past decade they've wasted 1st round picks on linemen who definitely were not worthy of being 1st round picks. I say this because IMO you need big, strong, physically dominating linemen in the trenches on both offense and defense , but Miami has consistently drafted the opposite of "old-school" at every position. Tunsil looked good only because he was the best lineman on the worst O-line in the league. Incognito was the last "tough" O-lineman that this team had, and IMO he's far tougher than ANYONE drafted or signed by Miami under Philbin, Gase, and Flores. After Bullygate, Incognito goes to Buffalo and becomes a Pro Bowler, while Philbin's O-lines struggled.
You can't say that the team hasn't been trying to build a good O-line; they spent a lot of resources on the line to no avail. The problem is that the Front Office keeps picking the wrong "type" of player. The fact that Philbin and Gase were against having a power running game with a tough, strong run-blocking O-line, preferring to use RBs as receivers out of the backfield, meant that they weren't interested in tough O-linemen. Philbin backed Jonathan Martin over Incognito, and kept starting Dallas Thomas. This right here tells me that Philbin had no clue what he was doing. And, even worse, who in the Front Office had the bright idea to draft Martin and Thomas? It may be too early to judge Hunt, Jackson, and Kindley, but I have no faith in Miami's Front Office to draft the right players. When Flores was hired, he said that he wanted a strong running game. So far, the O-line hasn't been very good at run-blocking (even though these new guys were described as being "maulers"), and the RBs they added to the roster are the opposite of power RBs.
For the first time in many years I watched the Super Bowl (only because I have NFL GamePass and watched the condensed version). I saw a tough, physical defense overwhelm a weak O-line with Mahomes running for his life on nearly every play. The Bucs defense held the Chiefs with their explosive, high-scoring offense to just 3 FGs. I stated in another thread that Miami's problem is they can't recognize or won't go after those tough, physically dominating players; they're a weak team overall, and not just on the O-line!
