The Dolphins have signed veteran offensive lineman Germain Ifedi, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Starting right tackle Austin Jackson is expected to miss a few weeks of camp after suffering an injury in practice on Saturday, so Ifedi will at least provide experienced depth in Jackson’s absence (though the team does believe Jackson will be in the Week 1 starting lineup).
Ifedi, 31, has 117 apperances and 90 starts to his name. While most of that time has come at right tackle, he has also seen his fair share of snaps at right guard. In 2024, he started seven games at left tackle for the Browns’ injury-depleted offensive line.
That was the most action he saw since his seven-start 2021 campaign with the Bears, and there is a reason why he was still on the open market in early August. The former first-round pick of the Seahawks played every snap for Seattle during his first four years in the league from 2016-19, but he never developed as the team hoped, and his fifth-year option was declined as a result.
That led him to Chicago, where he spent the 2020-21 seasons. He operated as a full-time starter during that stint, excepting the games he missed due to injury. His Pro Football Focus evaluations were much better as a Bear than they had been as a Seahawk, but they were still roughly average, and he was unable to carve out a meaningful role for himself with the Falcons in 2022. He then spent all of the 2023 slate riding the Bills’ bench and did not see a single snap.
His time as an emergency LT with Cleveland did not go well, with PFF considering him the seventh-worst tackle in the league out of 81 qualified players. In fairness, he was miscast as a blindside blocker, and his work with the Bears suggested he can be a competent starter and a solid pass-blocker on the right side of the line. It may or may not be enough to land him a spot on the 53-man roster, but the Dolphins could certainly have done worse in their search for camp reinforcements.
That search also included players like Zack Bailey, Yodny Cajuste, Chris Hubbard, and David Sharpe, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC2, who indicated that quartet worked out for the team along with Ifedi. Obviously, Ifedi impressed the most.
In a corresponding move, Miami waived fourth-string quarterback Brett Gabbert (via ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques). And, in a rare piece of good news for the club’s secondary, the ‘Fins activated free agent addition Ifeatu Melifonwu from the active/NFI list (via Louis-Jacques). Melifonwu could start at safety alongside trade acquisition Minkah Fitzpatrick.