Tough task for tackles
Tunsil, James’ success vital to coach Gase’s pass-heavy offense
Dolphins’ Tunsil, James out to improve after lackluster seasons.
Miami Dolphins left tackle Laremy Tunsil and right tackle Ja’Wuan James are big keys to the offense. And right now that’s a bit unsettling.
The bookend tackles are both first-round picks — James was No. 19 in 2014, Tunsil was No. 13 in 2016 — and both struggled last season.
Tunsil, who was being mentioned as a possible No. 1 selection weeks before the 2016 draft, played left guard as a rookie and shifted to left tackle last season.
His performance, which was littered with false-start penalties along with overall disappointing play, left an unpleasant taste in his mouth, so to speak.
“It was a bad taste, a horrible taste,” Tunsil said.
James, who had problems with consistency last season, only played eight games before going down with a hamstring injury and ending the year on injured reserve.
It was the second time in three years an injury robbed him of almost half the season. In 2015, his second year, James missed nine games due to a toe injury.
Perhaps those anecdotes are part of the reason James, after agreeing in March to play this season on his $9.5 million fifthyear option, sent a message to Tunsil via Instagram: “We got some unfinished business to take care of.”
However, that attitude didn’t necessarily translate to success on the field in the organized team activities and minicamp practices that reporters were allowed to watch.
The pass-rushing defensive ends — Cameron Wake, Robert Quinn, Andre Branch and Charles Harris — had great success getting to quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
Granted, it was a small sample size. Media was only allowed at about half of the practices. And it was an unfair fight. Players weren’t wearing pads, so Tunsil and James were limited in their physicality.
Plus, coach Adam Gases uses these offseason practices mostly to work on the passing game, and that takes the guesswork out for the pass rushers. There’s little threat of a running play, so they’re constantly in attack mode.
“Really, a lot of times it’s tougher in OTAs [because] you have no pads on,” Gase said of the task facing Tunsil and James. “We’re throwing the ball a lot. This is really a passing camp type emphasis, so there’s not much run game threat. It’s tough. It’s good for them though because you really have to be good with the cadence.
“You have to be good at getting out there and being ready for their counters. Those guys have to be on it.”
Offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, in his first year with Miami, likes what he sees physically from Tunsil and James.
“Really athletic,” Loggains said of the pair. “It’s shown up, just their ability. They’re young kids, too. Both of them are young, but they have the ability to really move and they should be good in pass [protection].”
At their best, James and Tunsil could be among the most athletic pair of tackles in the league.
It’d be asking too much in 2018 for Miami’s tackles to reach the level of, say, Tennessee’s set of left tackle Taylor Lewan, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, or right tackle Jack Conklin, an All Pro who is currently sidelined while recovering from a knee injury sustained in a January playoff loss against New England.
But James and Tunsil must be really good. If not, Gase’s passing offense collapses under pressure from a slew of ferocious pass rushers.
James and Tunsil have both flashed signs of being high-quality players.
In last year’s opener against the Los Angeles Chargers, for example, they kept defensive ends Joey Bosa (12.5 sacks for the season, no sacks vs. Miami) and Melvin Ingram (10.5 sacks for the season, one sack vs. Miami) under control.
The trick is maintaining that level of play for 16 games or longer.
To do that, James seems to be keeping his road to success basic and focused on the future.
“I’m just trying to get better every day,” he said. “I’m just focused on coming back from this injury being a whole lot better, being 100 percent and finishing this season.”
Tunsil, on the other hand, is using last year’s performance as his fuel for getting better.
“I just wanted to improve my game,” he said. “That’s the main thing I was dwelling on. I knew I could have been better.
“Now, I’m here, [and it’s] a new season, a new person. Let’s get it.”