Marcel Louis-Jacques
MIAMI GARDENS — In less than a week’s time, the Miami Dolphins lost nearly 30 years worth of NFL experience.
Neither defensive lineman Calais Campbell nor left tackle Terron Armstead will return to the Dolphins locker room in 2025 after signing a one-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals and retiring, respectively. Their departure leaves Miami without two team captains from the 2024 season, and without the only player from last season’s roster with more than a decade of NFL experience (Campbell) — although both Jalen Ramsey, Tyreek Hill and Artie Burns will hit that milestone this season.
Campbell and Armstead were two of the most respected voices in Miami’s locker room last season. Their leadership teeters on being irreplaceable, but the Dolphins need someone to do exactly that.
“It’s a collection man. You’ve got so much knowledge leaving at once,” Armstead said at his retirement party Saturday. “Me and Calais, we’ve definitely seen a lot of ball, we’ve seen a lot of players, we’ve seen a lot of interactions, we’ve seen a lot of conflicts, all that. So we’re able to talk through certain things. Now with both of us leaving — the knowledge is there. The groundwork has been laid. The O-line knows what it takes as far as work. I came in and I instilled that early, every off day.”
Replacing Armstead at left tackle will likely be 2024 second-round pick, Patrick Paul, who started three games as a rookie last season.
Paul said he was ready for the role when asked back in February and he earned Armstead’s approval as the two got to know each other last season.
“It’s his time. He knows it,” Armstead said. “Pat Paul will do his part. I promise you that. He’ll do his part. He will work his butt off.”
From a leadership standpoint, the Dolphins believe they have Armstead’s successor in former first-round pick Austin Jackson, who signed a three-year extension in 2023 but missed nine games with a knee injury last season.
Jackson is the team’s longest-tenured player on the offensive line and must lead a group that will likely introduce three new starters at left tackle, left guard and right guard.
The other side of the ball has an obvious candidate — defensive tackle Zach Sieler, who was a captain last season and has recorded 10 sacks in each of the past two seasons.
Next to and behind Sieler on the defensive line isn’t quite as clear. Miami re-signed Benito Jones but he, Sieler, Matt Dickerson and Neil Farrell are the only defensive linemen currently on the Dolphins’ roster.
The team will likely address the position with one or more of its 10 draft picks at the end of this month.
This pending shift in leadership comes three months after several Dolphins players and coach Mike McDaniel admit a need for more accountability within the locker room. Several players were fined multiple times last season for being late to meetings, to a point where McDaniel said he would need to find a more effective punitive measure.
Other respected voices in the locker room, like tight end Jonnu Smith, linebacker Jordyn Brooks or offensive guard Aaron Brewer are also candidates to replace one of the three departed captains from a season ago; linebacker David Long Jr. was voted a captain but was released midway through the season.
It’s also fair to wonder whether Hill will be voted a captain for the fourth consecutive year following events at the end of last season. He removed himself from the team’s season-ending loss to the New York Jets before suggesting to reporters after the game that he wanted to play elsewhere. Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said Hill never requested a trade and Hill apologized and retracted his comments in February.
Hill’s offseason came to the forefront last week when police officers responded to a domestic dispute at the residence of Hill and his wife. Hill’s mother-in-law called 911 to report an “assault in progress” during an argument between him and his wife, but no charges were filed.
McDaniel told reporters at the NFL’s annual meeting in March that he would be encouraged if Hill was voted a captain this summer.
“I would be pumped if he was voted captain, because I think that Tyreek being accountable for who he is as a competitor and what he’s learned from in his journey,” McDaniel said, “I think that that means that his teammates have seen him completely — that they’ve all as teammates fully embraced the whole process of, ‘Hey, I’m a human being. This is wrong, this is right. This is how I want to do things.’
“So to me that would show a healthy evolution … you have teammates that you love, they do something that they regret or maybe that they wish they could have done over again. Well then you give them the opportunity to prove otherwise, and I think that’s what Tyreek’s up for the challenge. Tyreek wants to set the standard of what type of competitors we have. So I think if we’re in a spot like that, we’re probably healthy in a way that would be good for the organization and all of Fins nation.”
The Dolphins’ process of finding their new player-driven leadership will begin on the first day of their offseason program, next Monday, April 21.
