Outside of quarterback, the Dolphins’ biggest need was obviously the offensive line. I was on record saying I thought Miami needed to draft at least two linemen inside the top-50 and four total for the weekend. Well, at pick 39 the Dolphins selected Robert Hunt an offensive guard and offensive tackle prospect from Louisana-Layette. 

This was another pick that surprised me at first because under GM Chris Grier the Dolphins have stayed away from small school prospects like they were the plague. Miami drafted none in their 2019 class and then waited until the 6th round to select one in 2018. 

For me, Hunt was the turning point of this draft for the Dolphins. Once they selected him I knew exactly what team they were trying to be both from a schematic and philosophy perspective. The Dolphins want to run a power running scheme and wear teams out by bullying them in the trenches under the South Florida heat. 

Hunt is a nasty mauler and run blocker there is no denying that. The conversation most Dolphins fans are having is whether or not he will be playing right tackle since Miami still has a hole out there. If you follow me then you know I think Hunt should be a guard but with Miami’s lack of depth at tackle, I am sure he will get a chance to win the RT job in camp, whenever that ends up being. 

Let’s see what Hunt has to offer the Dolphins right away.

 

Okay, let us start with the fun stuff. Pancakes! Everyone loves pancakes right? Well, Robert Hunt serves them up pretty consistently. On this play, Hunt is stepping down the line from the RT spot to block the defender lined up over the B-gap. 

The idea here is to clear the right side of the line completely free of defenders giving the RB a gaping hole to run through. Hunt takes one step down the line, gets his hands inside the chest plate, grabs him, and turns him into the ground. 

Hunt is just a physically dominant player on film which is good for two reasons. One, its what Miami wants upfront, They signed Ereck Flowers, who is a power player, and drafted Soloman Kindley, who is also a power player. Additionally, they signed Jordan Howard, who is a power running back.  Two, he played against a lower level of competition so seeing this level of dominance matters to me. When projecting small school players they should physically stand out on film. It should be obvious beyond doubt he’s better than the rest of the players on the field. 

 

Before we move on let’s have a little more fun. In this play, the defender tries to jump inside on Hunt. Just by looking at that defender, you can tell he doesn’t have the needed girth to hold up against Hunt, especially on the inside. 

He goes in there anyway and it goes about how you would expect it to. Hunt basically catches him and then puts him on the ground with very little resistance. This is the type of mentality that makes lineman successful in the NFL.  

 

When I watched Hunt during the pre-draft process, something that stuck out to me was how explosive he could be when moving forward into open space. I couldn’t get the play above to start an earlier for some reason but trust me on this one. 

I can tell you Hunt gets out of his stance with some nice burst and then covers a ton of ground quickly. This makes it difficult for the LB on the second level to brace himself for contact and get his hands up. I recommend pausing the video right when Hunt makes contact with him because it looks like he just slapped him straight across the face. 

After the initial contact, Hunt finishes him into the ground. I love this even more because this play doesn’t look designed to go in Hunt’s direction. He didn’t have to put the LB into the dirt like that, but he did anyway. 

One thing I will say is although Hunt is explosive into space, he doesn’t always make contact as you see above. In the NFL, he will have to a better job making sure he actually finds some work when going out into space because sometimes he can struggle to stay attached to blocks or make contact at all when pulling into space. 

 

The question now becomes: is Hunt a tackle or guard? My personal opinion is he would be a much better guard than tackle given his reps in pass protection. However, in the spirit of fairness, I’ll give both options a fair showing. 

On this play against Appalachian State, Hunt does a pretty good job holding his own on the outside. This was a horizontal set and didn’t ask him to kick slide backward and protect the edge. All he needed to do was fire out and wall the defender off with his large frame. 

I think Miami will use these sets a good amount in their offense which is good because it’s where Hunt is most successful. He’s got once he gets his hands on guys because he’s so damn powerful. 

 

On this rep, Hunt is forced to take a vertical set and actually move backward. Two things stand out to be right off the bat. First, he gives up his chest pretty easily on this play and allows the defender to push him back without much resistance. An NFL rusher probably hits him with a counter here and gets in for the sack. I’ll give him credit though he does do a good job re-anchoring after giving up some ground. 

Two, he is consistently too upright to me. He’s just not very good at bending his knees and can be more of a waist bender at times which is a death sentence for some lineman. He needs to dip his butt more on this play and absorb the defender’s power. 

 

Another red flag from his play at RT was defenders were able to get him off the ground more than once. Again, on this play, he lets the defender get into his chest. I think the important distinction to make is the reason Hunt becomes unbalanced is that he wasn’t quick enough to get back and build his stance. 

He holds up on this play and nothing really comes of it. With that said, when you are projecting players to the next level you have to scout them like they are going against NFL level talent. If an NFL defender got Robert Hunt in the air it would probably result in a sack. 

While I believe Hunt isn’t a good enough athlete or technically refined enough to play tackle, the Dolphins offense might be his best chance to be successful at tackle. OC Chan Gailey figures to run a good amount of spread concepts in the passing game where the ball comes out quickly. 

With the ball coming out so quickly Hunt won’t be forced to take longer vertical sets and therefore is should help to mask some of his weaknesses. If Gailey does call for a longer/deeper set or Ryan Fitzpatrick/Tua starts to improvise his warts may start to show. 

If you play him at guard some of these concerns would be mitigated pretty easily. There is absolutely zero harm in trying out Hunt at RT because if he’s not good then you can kick him inside to guard. 

Dolphins fans seem to think it is a sure thing he will be successful at tackle. It’s okay to be optimistic, but I would recommend some caution. There is a reason Hunt was ranked as a guard during the pre-draft process. 

Either way, I think the Dolphins found a good offensive lineman who fits the type of team they are trying to build. You can’t ask for much more than that. 

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