Nowhere to Go But Up for Jonah Savaiinaea

Nowhere to Go But Up for Jonah Savaiinaea

It feels like complaining about the Miami Dolphins’ offensive line has become somewhat of a yearly tradition at this point. When you’re coming off a General Manager who notoriously wasn’t worried about his team’s line, that really shouldn’t be too surprising. Though it isn’t like Chris Grier completely ignored the position near the end. 

The final second-round pick he would ever make as a part of the Miami Dolphins was spent on Jonah Savaiinaea, a guard out of Arizona. There’s no denying that Dolphins fans were optimistic at the time, but if you’re stranded in a desert, even the dirtiest puddle starts to look like a bottle of Fiji water. 

Coming into the draft, the experts who cover it weren’t super high on Savaiinaea. Lance Zierlein, writing for NFL.com, had this to say about him ahead of the draft. 

“Durable three-year starter who is built like a right guard but has valuable protection experience as a collegiate tackle.” He wrote. “Savaiinaea doesn’t have the athleticism to stick at right tackle in the NFL, but can play there in a pinch with some help. He’s very wide and can engulf smaller opponents as a base blocker while sealing off double teams and down blocks. His feet often deaden on contact, creating opportunities for defenders to leak through his edges in both the run and pass games. Savaiinaea’s size works to his advantage, and he could become a serviceable starting guard in time.” 

As Miami’s offensive line was in dire straits, they started Savaiinaea from day one. He fit right into the Dolphins’ line. Which is to say he was not very good. Pro Football Focus recently hosted an article about the lowest-ranked players at every position based on their ratings system. Jonah Savaiinaea is the cover image. Here is what writer Bradley Locker had to say. 

“Savaiinaea had the opportunity to start as a rookie for Miami after being the team’s second-round pick, but the results were far from desired.” He wrote. “He produced the lowest single-season PFF grade for a starting guard ever, and by a sizable margin at that. The Arizona product posted a 14.1 PFF pass-blocking grade after being credited with a league-high eight sacks and 45 pressures, and his 37.3 PFF run-blocking grade was also second-worst among qualifiers.” 

That is quite the brutal write-up. However, there is a silver lining… it probably can’t get any worse. For his part, he believes that his first season was a learning experience and it can only help him improve. In an interview with the “Drive Time” Podcast, he said this about his rookie season. 

“It’s big, having a year under my belt, and going into this year knowing that I gained more confidence,” 

I’ll be rooting for him to take a big step in year two. At the very least, I hope that he isn’t the worst-rated guard of all time again.

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