The Miami Dolphins might still be without some key personnel on defense when they face the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night, but more importantly, they’ll have one of their most important players back.
Zach Sieler was back at practice Thursday, and there really is no downplaying how much his return could or should boost a defense that struggled in his absence.
Maybe it was because of the caliber of quarterback the Dolphins were facing — going from Mason Rudolph, Jacoby Brissett, and Anthony Richardson to Kyler Murray and Josh Allen — but the defense caved in the two games without Sieler and cost the team dearly just as the offense picked things up with Tua Tagovailoa’s return at quarterback.
The Dolphins have allowed 389 and 325 yards in the past two games after allowing only one opponent to go over 300 yards in the first six games—the Seattle Seahawks had 375 yards.
While the Dolphins did miss Kader Kohou the past two games and Jevon Holland the last game against Buffalo, there’s no question that Sieler’s absence left the biggest hole on defense.
Sieler’s absence was most felt in the passing game, not against the run, as one might suspect, given that he’s an interior defensive lineman, but rather in the passing game because the Dolphins simply didn’t get enough pressure up the middle against either Arizona or Buffalo.
This will be big if the Dolphins are to slow down Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua.
In a bigger picture, if the Dolphins have any shot at making a playoff run in the second half of the 2024 season, they’ll need their defense to step up, and that’s going to be a lot easier to accomplish with Sieler in the lineup.
NEW LOOK FOR SIELER
Sieler spoke to reporters Thursday for the first time since he was injured exactly three weeks ago.
He said the injury was so fluky he didn’t even know exactly how it happened.
“I mean, I remember it just coming on the edge and just, I don’t know what it was, but something got up in my mask, and I just remember just my head going back,” Sieler said. “It’s nothing that I really expected to work through. And then once that swelling got under control, and I was able to kind of work through what happened and everything, it was better. So I’m glad to be back and it sucked missing two games. It’s never happened to me. Thankfully, I’ve been fortunate I didn’t have to go through something like that. I played through a lot, could play through a lot, but this was something that I kind of had to work through that.”
Before the freakish eye injury, Sieler had never missed a game since the Dolphins claimed him off waivers from the Baltimore Ravens in December 2019.
When he’s back in action, Sieler says he’ll wear a visor to protect his eye.
“I’ll have a visor on for my wife the rest of my career,” Sieler said. “And she’s right, though. I mean, I’ll be honest, I don’t want to go through something like that again. As frustrating as a visor is, I remember COVID with the visor and the face guards [in the 2020 season], and like in your stance, you start sweating and everything, and it gets tough. But without the face, the lower face, the COVID guard or wherever that crap was, it’s a lot better just the visor.”
And the Dolphins defense will be better just with Sieler back.
