Dolphins preparing to spend weeks without starting center

The Miami Dolphins officially have a center crisis for the second straight season.

Even though Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel wouldn’t give specifics about the hand injury Aaron Brewer suffered in practice on Wednesday, his acknowledgment that the injury to the center’s snapping hand is “week to week” makes this a problematic situation for the offensive line.

And it’s one that could linger till the Sept. 8 start of the regular season, which is less than a month away.

Not only was Brewer working through snapping issues of his own with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, issues that have lingered since his days as a starter with the Tennessee Titans the previous two seasons, but the logical candidate to move inside to center - Liam Eichenberg - would prefer to be spending training camp settling into the starting spot he covets, which is the vacant right guard spot.

However, after Miami’s 20-13 preseason win over the Atlanta Falcons, McDaniel managed to spin Brewer’s hand injury as a positive for the team.

“Most of the time you are not fortunate enough to [avoid] health related issues on the offensive line for a whole season, so it’s better to have this scenario now than for the first time in week 10,” said McDaniel, whose offense used 14 different starting combinations of offensive linemen last year, which was the second most starting player combinations in the NFL, trailing only to the New York Jets. “You’d prefer not to have it at all, but that’s not always reality.”

What likely becomes Miami’s reality is that Eichenberg, a 2021 second-round pick who has started 38 games for the Dolphins - working as a starter at all five positions on the offensive line - will fill in for Brewer while his hand heals.

If he suffered a fracture it’s likely that Brewer will be sidelined 4-to-6 weeks because the likelihood of him snapping with a cast or brace on his right hand are slim. However, it’s possible Brewer could play right or left guard with a brace or a cast, possibly returning to a position he played in his first two NFL seasons.

The Dolphins will seemingly explore having Jack Driscoll play center. The fifth-year veteran Miami signed this offseason started the Falcons game at center and didn’t have any snapping mishaps, unlike his training camp work the previous two weeks.

“It will take some extra commitment from some guys to make sure that everyone is coordinated. But it’s something that we’ve been familiar with here,” McDaniel said, referring to Miami playing some, or all of 11 games in 2023 without Connor Williams, last year’s starting center, who battled through a couple of injuries last season before eventually suffering a season-ending ACL injury in December. “We’ve had this scenario before.”

It would be easier for the Dolphins to weather this early storm if they had a healthy Isaiah Wynn, but last year’s starting left guard is still rehabbing a quadriceps injury that got him placed on injured reserve after seven games.

Miami re-signed Wynn this offseason to a one-year deal worth $1.6 million, but it seems as if he won’t be ready for the start of the regular season. He began training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, and hasn’t been cleared to practice heading into the fourth week of training camp, which concludes with next Saturday’s preseason game against the Washington Commanders.

“Right now there is not really an update,” McDaniel said about Wynn, who has started 47 NFL games. “He’s working hard, diligent, but that has been up in the air, and gray. I’ll be notifying you guys when it’s close to [Wynn getting] field action.”

That means Wynn will likely begin the 2024 regular season on the PUP, which means he’ll miss at least the first four games of the regular season.

That would make Robert Jones the front runner to become the season opening starter at left guard, and leaves Driscoll, Lester Cotton and newcomer Sean Harlow as the viable options to work at right guard if Eichenberg is forced to fill in for Brewer at center.