Dolphins uncertain about severity of Armstead’s shoulder injury

Tua Tagovailoa wasn’t the only star player for the Miami Dolphins who sustained a concerning injury.

Left tackle Terron Armstead, the anchor of the Dolphins’ offensive line, is banged up yet again.

The five-time Pro Bowler, who has struggled to stay healthy in his 12 NFL seasons, injured a shoulder during the third quarter of Thursday night’s embarrassing 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

While Armstead tried to continue playing with the injury, the 33-year-old veteran was eventually pulled from the game.

When asked about Armstead’s shoulder injury Friday morning, head coach Mike McDaniel didn’t know the exact severity of the injury, but predicted it wasn’t season ending.

While that’s positive, and hints to the likelihood that Armstead might continue to play with a shoulder harness, it’s not exactly ideal considering Miami preserved Armstead all offseason, training camp and preseason, significantly limiting his practice participation [he has practiced once a week for the first two weeks of the regular season], with the hopes that he would finally have a healthy season.

That lasted all of one game.

“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,” McDaniel said of Armstead, who has missed 11 of 34 regular-season games, and played more than half of them with an injury that limited his practice participation.

“I’m optimistic that it will be something where he’ll be playing here sooner than later, but realistically I don’t totally know,” McDaniel added. “It doesn’t look like it’s the worst-case scenario, [a situation] where you’re worried about the season. It’s not in that realm.”

Even though the Dolphins drafted former Houston standout Patrick Paul in the second round, and have him viewed as Armstead’s understudy, Miami replaced Armstead with Kendall Lamm against the Bills.

Lamm started eight games for the Dolphins last season at tackle, mostly as Armstead’s replacement, and played admirably in 2023. However, Lamm struggled against the Bills, as did most of Miami’s offensive line. The 10-year veteran, who has openly admitted this is his last NFL season, is also the first to praise Paul for how talented the 6-foot-7, 332 pounder is because of his length, athleticism and footwork, and has predicted his future in the NFL is bright, and that his time will come “sooner than later.”

So why didn’t the Dolphins put the rookie in Thursday night’s game?

McDaniel said Miami’s coaches discussed it, but preferred to put Paul in a situation they are certain he’d succeed in, which likely means he’d get his first NFL regular season action in a game where he’s worked as a starter all week.

“I get fearful if I can help it [when it comes to] setting people up in positions of failure,” McDaniel said. “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….I just thought it was best to go the direction we did with the experience and the productivity that Kendall was giving.”

However, McDaniel’s approach could change next week as the Dolphins begin preparing for the Seattle Seahawks because it would present Paul, who exclusively works as a left tackle, three days to get himself ready. Lamm would likely remain the swing tackle, serving as the backup tackle on both the left and right side.

Skylar Thompson, who will likely replace Tagovailoa as Miami’s starting quarterback for the next few weeks because of the concussion Tagovailoa sustained Thursday night’s game, has consistently worked with Paul this summer because both spent most of training camp running with the second-team offensive line.