Step right up: Webb to start at tackle

Veteran lineman says he’ll ‘prepare, prepare, prepare’ as he replaces Davenport

DAVIE — One week after joining the Miami Dolphins, J’Marcus Webb has become the team’s starting right tackle.

Webb, who has participated in four practices since joining the Dolphins last Friday, worked with the starting unit on Friday as the replacement for Julien Davenport, who reportedly hyper-extended his knee during Thursday’s practice and has a small crack in a tibia of the injured leg.

The Dolphins placed Davenport, who started at right tackle in Miami’s season-opening 59-10 loss to Baltimore, on injured reserve on Friday, opening up a spot on the 53-man roster. It’s possible that Miami could promote a practice squad player before Sunday’s game or wait until next week to sign a veteran.

“It’s about the next-man-up mentality,” Webb said on Friday. “All I can do is stay prepared, get the film, communicate with the guys and keep the work ethic that I have, and prepare, prepare, prepare.

“I’ve got to put my hand in the ground and be ready to grind.”

Webb, who has played in 11 games the past four NFL seasons, has started 65 of

the 82 games he’s played in since entering the league in 2010. Most of those starts have come at right tackle. His last full season as an NFL starter came in 2015 with the Oakland Raiders.

The Dolphins feel he’s the team’s best option because Isaiah Prince, the team’s 2018 sixth-round pick, struggled for most of training camp and the preseason, and the rookie needs to improve his fundamentals before he’ll be considered as one of Miami’s top five offensive linemen.

If Webb starts Sunday’s 1 p.m. game against the New England Patriots it will be the fourth different starting line up Miami will use since training camp started. Trading left tackle Laremy Tunsil and receiver Kenny Stills to the Houston Texans for a package of draft picks that includes two first-round selections, a 2022 second-round selection, Davenport and cornerback Johnson Bademosi sent a ripple effect through the offensive line, and the unit struggled against the Ravens.

Jesse Davis, who spent the previous two seasons as Miami’s starting right guard, has replaced Tunsil as the team’s starting left tackle. Next to him is rookie guard Michael Deiter, a former Wisconsin standout the Dolphins selected in the third round of the 2019 draft. Daniel Kilgore, a team captain, will start his second game at center a year after missing most of the 2018 season with a biceps injury.

Danny Isidora, a former Hurricanes standout whom the Dolphins acquired two weeks ago in a trade with Minnesota that sent the Vikings a 2020 late-round pick, started at right guard last week and is expected to remain at that spot.

And now Webb will be responsible for stabilizing the right side of the offensive line by manning the right tackle spot. Miami’s only other option is to start Prince, or move Isidora to right tackle and have Chris Reed or Shaq Calhoun, an undrafted rookie, start at right guard.

Miami’s coaches will likely explore all those options before deciding on a starting lineup against the Patriots.