Terron Armstead: We have enough to beat anybody at full strength, that's our mindset
The Dolphins led the AFC East for much of the 2023 season, but the club missed out on its first division title since 2008 by losing its last two games to Baltimore and Buffalo.
Still, there is optimism about what Miami can do in 2024 in part because the team has plenty of returning players — like left tackle Terron Armstead.
In an interview with NFL Network this week, Armstead noted that he contemplated retirement after playing just 10 games in 2023. But he is back in the fold for another season as quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s frontside protector.
“In all honesty, the past two, maybe three seasons, I've taken time to have that evaluation period, to really process," Armstead said on NFL Network’s Total Access. "This game comes with a lot, a lot of physical, mental, and emotional toll, so just really taking time to process and like I said, evaluate what I wanted to do. Because when I'm doing this thing, I would never want to be halfway in. Full commitment, full investment.
“So, this offseason I was a little more vocal about that evaluation period, which raised a lot more coverage, but I went through that process for the past two or three years.”
The Dolphins have made the postseason in each of head coach Mike McDaniel’s first two seasons. But both times, Miami has made an early exit in the wild card round.
Armstead feels the Dolphins already have all they need to change that result in 2024, even with all the movement that's happened on Miami’s roster and within the AFC East as a whole.
“It's all in house, it's all in house," he said. "We don't really look at all the other moving pieces within the division, or around the league, because we feel like we have enough. We're talented enough, we're skilled enough, we're tough enough, we just have to do. It's now time to show improvements, to show we can win those big games and live those big moments. So it doesn't matter who's traded, we don't look at that, we have enough to beat anybody at full strength, and that's really our mindset, it's our mentality.
“We have that confidence, but we just have to go out and do it.”
