Dolphins hiring Boston College assistant to be offensive line coach

The Miami Dolphins have lured one of college football’s best offensive line coaches to instruct what has been the team’s most troublesome unit the past few years.

According to an ESPN report, new Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel has selected Boston College assistant Matt Applebaum to coach the Dolphins’ offensive line, which struggled this past season in every aspect of the game.

Applebaum will be responsible for teaching a group of young players, most of whom were high draft picks, the zone-blocking scheme that McDaniel has coached under at every NFL stop.

Applebaum has spent two seasons at Boston College, and during that time he oversaw an offensive line that featured numerous All-ACC honorees.

Before joining Boston College’s staff Applebaum had a two-year stint at Towson University as offensive line coach. Towson finished first and second in the conference in scoring both seasons.

He previously served two years as the offensive line coach at Davidson College, where he was an offensive coordinator in 2017.

In 2014 he served as an offensive assistant for the Jacksonville Jaguars, working on Gus Bradley’s coaching staff.

He spent three years working in Washington, starting as a pro personnel assistant, moved to college personnel assistant and then to an offensive coaching assistant in 2010. But his time in with the team that’s now known as the Commanders didn’t have any overlap with McDaniel, who worked on Washington’s coaching staff from 2011-2013.

A Pennsylvania native, the 37-year-old Applebaum played college football at UConn, where he was a two-year starter.

Applebaum must now take a unit that features five early-round draft picks — in Robert Hunt, Austin Jackson, Liam Eichenberg, Michael Deiter and Solomon Kindley — and determine if they are athletic enough to be effective in an outside-zone running scheme, which McDaniel seemed to favor during his run as the San Francisco 49ers run-game specialist and offensive coordinator.

The hope is that not all of those youngsters have to be scrapped, but the Dolphins would benefit from an upgrade from Jesse Davis as the team’s starting right tackle and might need to explore signing or drafting a new center to compete with Deiter.

The Eagles may have three offensive linemen selected in the 2022 NFL draft, and one of them, Alec Lindstrom, just so happens to be viewed as the best center in the draft.

Lindstrom is an intelligent, flexible and technically sound prospect. His short-area quickness is sufficient to reach-block and climb to the second level, which is the style McDaniel will likely use with the Dolphins.

There’s also offensive tackle Tyler Vrabel, who arguably might be the best of Boston College’s draft prospects. He seemingly has impressive blend of athleticism and intelligence in an NFL frame. He has a finisher’s mentality in the run game to drive defenders to the ground. And then there’s offensive guard Zion Johnson, who must improve his technique to have a chance of being successful in the NFL.