Chris Perkins: Dolphins OL coach Barry cares about players, but that's only the beginning

Chris Perkins, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Dec 13, 2025

Published in Football

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Butch Barry, the Dolphins’ third-year offensive line coach who might be just as responsible for their recent run game success as running back De’Von Achane and coach Mike McDaniel, is a background figure to most fans.

In a sense, Barry, whose offensive line has cleared the way for the Dolphins to average a league-leading 192.3 yards per game rushing since Week 10, is easy to describe. He yells until his face turns red, sticks to a vegan diet and wears a wide-brimmed straw hat on the practice field so he can’t be hurt by the sun or melanoma, which he’s battled a couple of times.

“He’s always got that straw hat,” center Aaron Brewer said. “He’s got his costume. He’s like a movie character, a cartoon character. Same outfit.”

But ask players to go deeper about Barry, the former University of Miami and Denver Broncos offensive line coach, and you understand his prominence and significance very quickly.

Start with this: Barry’s players love him.

To them, one word accurately describes Barry.

“Passion,” left tackle Patrick Paul said.

The passion surfaces in many ways. Mostly, however, it can be seen in the way Barry bonds with his players.

“He cares,” right tackle Larry Borom said. “He cares about his players. And he cares about how we do things.”

Don’t discount the caring aspect of Barry’s job. It’s legit, and it’s serious.

He got choked up when I asked him Friday where his passion emanates from. He had to pause for a few seconds while he fought back tears.

“I’m a little emotional because this game has given me a lot,” Barry said.

He explained he got into coaching to impact lives. To that end, ex-players will still call Barry, a father figure to many, on Father’s Day and wish him a happy Father’s Day.

Relationships matter greatly to Barry.

“If you look at life in general, the connection you have with people is what’s most important,” he said.

The funny thing about that statement is that Paul thought Barry didn’t like him after their first meeting. It was at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis in 2024. Ex-general manager Chris Grier liked Paul. So did coach Mike McDaniel.

“But him,” Paul said, referring to Barry, “he was like, ‘Man, this kid’s arrogant.’ ”

Barry agreed.

“I don’t think he’s that far off with that assessment,” he said.

Fast forward about 18 months. It’s offseason 2025, and Barry and Paul are attending pilates classes together in the mornings.

“He’s limber,” Paul said with a smile. “He’s got a little left in the tank.”

Going further in the name of building relationships, Barry did pilates classes with the entire offensive line.

“To do these hard things, you want to be connected,” Barry said, later adding, “I also think it’s important as coaches they see us go through something hard with them.”

This entire season has been hard for the Dolphins. You’ll often hear Barry and his offensive linemen mention “The Standard,” and talk about how the group has a “standard” that they must meet.

Here’s what that means: “The two things he does not play about is running off the ball and setting your angle,” offensive tackle Kendall Lamm said of Barry. “It doesn’t matter what the block looks like. It doesn’t matter what you did. If you didn’t run off the ball and set your angle, that’s a problem to him.”

With the Dolphins now relying on their run game to fuel their offense, Barry’s role on the team, and the offensive line’s role on the team, is even more important. Everything counts, everything matters, especially accountability.

“One thing I’ll say is I have a ton of respect for the fact that he’s not ego driven,” right guard Cole Strange said, adding Barry owns up to his mistakes. “And I think that just allows the (offensive line) room to move forward easier, if that makes sense.”

Combine all of this and you get a Dolphins run game that’s firing off the ball and opening holes at an impressive rate, which they’ll try to do again Monday night in Pittsburgh against a team that’s likely to stuff the box with eight-man fronts.

“Everyone sat here and dogged the run game and all this stuff,” Lamm said, “but it’s like we slowly but surely kept chugging away. When (wide receiver) Tyreek (Hill) got hurt, you think the boxes didn’t change? You think what we saw didn’t change? But we slowly but surely kept plugging away and now it is what it is. That’s a credit to Butch, and that’s a credit to us. But that’s also a credit to what he makes us do with his standards.”