A position switch the Dolphins are thrilled with. And Dolphins, Ravens injury updates

A six-pack of Miami Dolphins on a Friday afternoon:

▪ The Dolphins love how Connor Williams — a left guard in Dallas — has thrived at center, his new position for the Dolphins. He opened the Patriots game with a high snap (that Tua Tagovailoa jumped to catch) but graded out very well.

“He did some really cool stuff,” coach Mike McDaniel said Friday. “I was very, very happy with his play. The biggest thing with him is he knows he can play the position very well. I can tell internally. He’s demanding a lot of himself. At center, your demands aren’t just physical.

“He will tell you the first three things that went wrong [because that’s his personality]. He should be gaining confidence. It’s my job to make sure his confidence [is] where it should be, and it should be pretty high. It’s amazing he’s come this far in a short period of time.”

Williams emerged pleased from his first NFL regular season game at center.

“It was good to get the first one in,” he said. “I feel natural at the position. I consider myself a center now” after four years at guard for the Dallas Cowboys.

▪ As expected, the Dolphins placed right tackle Austin Jackson on short-term injured reserve, sidelining him for at least four games. The Dolphins did not immediately fill his spot on the 53-man roster.

Tight end Cethan Carter (concussion protocol) also was ruled out for Sunday’s game at Baltimore.

Listed as questionable for Sunday: left tackle Terron Armstead (toe injury), defensive lineman Christian Wilkins (back), receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr. (toe), tight end Hunter Long (who sustained an ankle injury in the past 24 hours) and running back Salvon Ahmed (heel). All five were limited during Friday’s practice.

Armstead on Friday declined to say whether he believes he will play Sunday.

Asked if he’s hopeful he will be able to play, he said: “That’s my goal every week. I’m trying to play every snap. It can be challenging if you let [it bother you mentally], especially a guy like myself where [injuries have] been my Achilles heel. ... Being depressed doesn’t heal an injury at all. It just makes it worse.”

Asked how his toe is feeling, he said: “Hard to say. Hit it hard today [with treatment doing], everything we can. I’ve had to become a master compensator. I’ve added tools to my toolbag to help me succeed in games where I’m not feeling my best ordealing with something.”

Coach Mike McDaniel said of Armstead’s availability: “If he can [play], he will. He has a high pain tolerance. He loves playing games. He’s played games with worse injuries. But what we don’t want to do is set stuff back further along in the season.”

Greg Little will start in Jackson’s absence. “Very confident in him,” McDaniel said of Little, who played 45 snaps in the opener after Jackson left with the ankle injury.

If Armstead cannot play, the Dolphins could use guards Robert Hunt or Liam Eichenberg at the other spot. Larnel Coleman is the most obvious internal option to be on the active roster Sunday, either through an elevation from the practice squad or a signing to the 53-man roster.

McDaniel said the decision to place Jackson on IR wasn’t easy: “What we wanted to avoid after we took all this into consideration is we don’t want it to linger the whole season. We like the work he’s gotten done.”

Meanwhile, the Ravens’ top four cornerbacks are injured: Marlon Humphrey (listed as questionable with a groin); Marcus Peters (hasn’t played since 2020 and listed as questionable with a knee); Brandon Stephens (listed as questionable with a quad injury) and Kyle Fuller (out for the season with a knee injury).

Also, Baltimore listed starting offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley as doubtful. Running back J.K. Dobbins (knee) is questionable but practiced fully on Friday.

▪ Whether the Dolphins blitz the heck out of the Ravens again will be the most fascinating subplot of Sunday’s game.

Per Pro Football Focus’ Ryan Smith, “no team in the NFL has blitzed more than the Dolphins since Week 1 of last season” at 44 percent.

Meanwhile, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson “has a 53.0 passing grade [34th out of 39 qualifying QBs] and 77.8 QB rating (30th) when blitzed” since the start of last season, per Smith.

Jackson threw for 238 yards and had a 73.6 passer rating in that 22-10 Dolphins Thursday night win last season, when Miami’s blitz-heavy attack throttled the Ravens offense.

The Dolphins didn’t have any safeties back in coverage on 33 percent of their defensive snaps against the Ravens last November—- an unusually high number.

▪ Brandon Jones’ six sacks since the beginning of last season are the most by an NFL safety.

What makes him such a good blitzer?

“His explosiveness, his agility, his quickness, his physicality,” safeties coach Steve Gregory said this week. “All of those things that can help you as a blitzer. His timing, his understanding of the scheme and how we’re trying to send him and things like that. With all of our guys that we send, those are key points to being an effective and good blitzer.”

▪ Unlike last season, teams can elevate each practice squad player three times instead of two. But an NFL team cannot elevate more than two practice squad players for a single game.

Last Sunday, the Dolphins elevated receiver River Cracraft (who got snaps on offense and special teams) and rookie safety Verone McKinley III, who played on special teams.

What is McKinley’s NFL talent?

“He has really good ball skills,” Gregory said. “I think his angles to the football and his understanding of the game, his smarts, his wisdom as a football player are a little bit beyond his years.

“I know he studied the game a lot in college. He had a podcast or whatever where he talked a lot about NFL players and things like that. He’s a very knowledgeable player, which allows him to play a step faster than maybe is perceived on paper, physical attributes.”

▪ The Dolphins used fullback Alec Ingold in several roles against New England—- as a ball-carrier in short yardage (gained a first down on a 2-yard carry), as a lead blocker, on a short pass pattern (one catch for 8 yards), and on a sideline 20-plus yard third- and-1 throw that went incomplete.

And this is only the beginning, according to Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith, who was with Ingold for two years with the Raiders.

“I was fortunate to be there when we drafted Alec,” Smith said. “We had him at the Senior Bowl. His high school coach was my high school coach at Wisconsin. He’s done a fantastic job. He was a high school quarterback; guys who were high school quarterbacks have a great understanding of the game.

“Mike [McDaniel] and Eric [Studesville] feel we are just scratching the surface with what we would like to do with him. You saw in Vegas, they were playing him all over the field.”

BONUS FUN FACT

The NFL tweeted this notable statistic this week: Tua Tagovailoa has the highest quarterback winning percentage (.875, 7-1 record) against Super Bowl-winning head coaches in NFL history, with a minimum of six starts.

He’s 4-0 against Bill Belichick, 1-0 against Jon Gruden (when he coached the Raiders), 1-0 against the Rams’ Sean McVay, 1-0 against Sean Payton (a win against the Saints last season). The only loss in those eight games came against Andy Reid’s Chiefs.

Tagovailoa faces Super Bowl 47 champion John Harbaugh in Week 2.