The Miami Dolphins keep saying they want leadership and a new standard up front, but Austin Jackson’s start has made that message hard to buy. At some point, experience stops being a selling point if the play on the field keeps sliding.
Jackson has not missed a game this season after spending most of 2025 on Injured Reserve, but durability alone is not enough to cover for what has followed. Through four weeks, he has looked nothing like a starting right tackle the Dolphins can trust.
The numbers tell the story in plain language. Jackson has given up 14 quarterback pressures in four games, and he is not helping enough in the run game to balance it out.
In Week 4, Pro Football Focus put him below 60 and credited him with three pressures allowed. He has also been on the wrong end of some tough assignments, facing players like Maxx Crosby and Joey Bosa, but that kind of matchup should not be defining his week-to-week performance at this stage of his career.
A quick look around the league paints an even rougher picture. Among 62 qualified NFL offensive tackles through Week 4, Jackson ranks near the bottom in several key categories: 11 hurries allowed, 14 pressures allowed, four penalties, three sacks allowed, a 93.3 pass-blocking efficiency mark, and a 41.7 pass-blocking grade.
That is a problem for a Dolphins team trying to sort out its identity with younger, less experienced players. If the goal is to build something new, the question becomes simple: why keep leaning on a veteran who is not carrying his end of the load?
Jackson was once held up by the previous regime of Mike McDaniel and Chris Grier as the offensive lineman everyone else was supposed to look to for advice and leadership. With where things stand now, that view feels a lot different.
The easiest fix may be to give someone else a shot at right tackle, and Caedan Wallace is the name that stands out. He has only two NFL starts, but there are signs he could still salvage his career. His time with the Patriots did not go well, in part because he was never in favor with head coach Mike Vrabel, which eventually led to a trade within the division.
Wallace might not be a clear upgrade. But the Dolphins may be at the point where they need to find out whether he can be better than what they are getting now.
The team also worked out three offensive linemen on Tuesday, including two undrafted rookies: Melvin Priestly and Dodji Dahoue. Dahoue is listed at 6-foot-9 and 315 pounds, while Priestly checks in at 6-foot-4 and 305 pounds. Miami’s interest in bigger blockers fits with what it showed by selecting Kadyn Proctor.
Proctor is another name to watch. He and Patrick Paul have already formed a strong left-side pairing, but the rookie’s long-term future is widely seen at right tackle. The Dolphins could move him there now, and that possibility has to at least be on the table.
If they do not go that route, the answer may come down to whether they sign one of the big linemen they worked out to line up next to Paul.
In Other News...
Jaguars Fans Wont Love This Brian Thomas Jr. Trade Buzz
The Dolphins 0-4 start has already pushed the front office into the kind of early-season roster brainstorming that rarely stays quiet for long, and the search for help around Malik Willis has quickly turned toward the passing game. One name that has surfaced in the chatter is Brian Thomas Jr., a young receiver whose upside remains obvious enough to intrigue teams looking for a jolt, even if his week-to-week production has not always matched the hype.
Bleacher Report floated a possible framework involving Miami sending a 2027 third-round pick to Jacksonville, a kind of deal that would speak to how aggressively the Dolphins may need to think if they want to change the feel of this season. For the Jaguars, moving a player with Thomass talent would not be easy to sell, and his inconsistency only adds another layer to a conversation that is likely to linger until someone actually makes the call. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Fans Are Still Waiting To See If Hafley Is Right
With the Dolphins stuck at 0-4 to open the 2026 season, Jeff Hafley spent his latest media availability leaning into the longer view. The head coach said he still believes in the players and in the process, framing the early slide as something the team can work through with trust, development and a steadier response to adversity. Miami has heard that kind of message before, but at this point the margin for patience is starting to shrink.
Now the focus shifts quickly to Cincinnati, where the Dolphins will try to show that Hafleys confidence is rooted in something more concrete than hope. The Bengals offer the next chance to prove the team can turn practice-room progress into results, and for a fan base waiting to see signs of a real course correction, this game feels like more than just another date on the schedule. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Fans May Have Found One Early Reason For Hope
Through the first four weeks of the 2026 season, Jeff Hafley has given Dolphins fans at least one reason to look past the broader unease around the roster. Miamis defense has not been dominant, but it has held up respectably in the early going, and that matters for a team that entered the year with a group many viewed as one of the weaker collections of talent the franchise has put on the field in some time.
What makes the start more interesting is the company Hafley is already keeping. The early numbers place his defense in the middle of the pack when stacked against the opening seasons of previous Dolphins head coaches, even though he inherited a difficult situation and a rebuilding feel around the roster. It is still early, but for a fan base searching for signs the new regime can stabilize something, the defensive baseline has quietly become one of the more encouraging developments. [Read more 🡒]