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Dolphins tackle Kendall Lamm could be thrust into starting role Week 1 if Terron Armstead’s not ready

david furones, south florida sun-sentinel
·4 min read

MIAMI GARDENS — Miami Dolphins reserve tackle Kendall Lamm has maybe the most important non-starting position on the roster outside of backup quarterback.

Lamm is the No. 2 left tackle and can be a swing tackle filling in on the right side if called upon.

That’s already a vital role, considering four-time Pro Bowl left tackle Terron Armstead usually accounts for some missed time every season and Dolphins right tackle Austin Jackson is coming off a 2022 season where he landed on injured reserve for an ankle injury following each of his two starts.

The Armstead part of the equation has already come into play. The Dolphins’ left tackle was injured in last week’s joint practices against the Texans in Houston. He has targeted Week 1 as his return date, but Miami is now finishing out training camp without him and will have Lamm anchoring the left side of the line come the regular-season opener at the Los Angeles Chargers if Armstead is unable to go.

Lamm has 29 career starts to his credit over the past eight seasons in the NFL as an undrafted player out of Appalachian State. So the 31-year-old has experience to swoop in and has done it in a lot of different offenses.

“This is not my first rodeo. I’ve seen the multitude of defenses from the various teams I’ve been on,” Lamm said Tuesday. “Football is football. When we run outside zone, it’s going to be outside zone. You skin a cat a few ways. But you want to, of course, get the objective done. We have a lot of speed here. Everybody knows that. So when we come off the ball and do certain things, we want to make it look a certain way.”

The Dolphins trusted Lamm enough early in free agency after he was a late-season addition to the team last year. First, Lamm was signed to the practice squad. He was eventually elevated to the active roster and thrown into starting duties Jan. 1 at the New England Patriots.

Now, Lamm has had a full offseason with the Dolphins, from organized team activities through minicamp and now most of training camp — something he didn’t have last year as he picked things up on the fly with a new team.

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“Familiarity with anything helps,” Lamm said. “Especially being with the guys, especially hearing the calls. Last year when I came in, to be completely real with you, when I came in towards halfway through the season, it’s like, I understood, but at the same time, not being able to go through this time and this process is major.”

Lamm is embracing the opportunity to work at both left and right tackle, providing key depth at both positions with one roster spot. And it’s not easy to do both with everything entirely flipped from one side to the other.

“Left and right is its own entity. I go from left, you go to the right side, it’s a brand new place, brand new field. That’s like CEO, the COO,” Lamm said. “It’s completely different. Your timing with your hands. Your timing with your steps. Opening up a certain way. Kicking a certain way. It’s beautiful to be put into that conflict, to be honest, because to do it now, especially against (Bradley) Chubb and (Jaelan) Phillips, like they’re very good.”

Lamm has been solid, but he has also had his rough moments competing opposite Chubb and Phillips. Chubb, especially, had his way with Lamm on several pass rushes at Wednesday’s practice.

Chubb feels defense coming along

Chubb is also working in a second season in Miami this year after being acquired midseason 2022. He, however, has previous experience with defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who was his head coach in Denver from 2019 to 2021.

“Now, it’s just about mastering the scheme,” Chubb said about where the defense stands. “Everybody knows what to do. Now it’s about, ‘OK, when this happens and this happens, how can I react to that?’ Just trying to take it to that next level, and I feel like everybody is on — out of 10 — I’d say everybody is on level six or seven right now. We still have some time to get it to 10, but I know when we get to 10, it’s going to look real good.”

Chubb appreciates Fangio for being able to make his defense one that can be picked up quickly.

“I think it’s a complicated defense in terms of scheme and how the offense sees it,” he said, “but for us, it’s kind of easy to learn. Especially the outside linebackers, we don’t have too much verbiage and stuff like that that we have to go through.”