Returning Dolphins QB, Ryan Tannehill, maybe the latest casualty to sustain the dreaded NFL label of “game manager”. The truth is, the former Texas A&M thrower has failed to do anything in his short NFL career to disprove the title. Over five seasons as the Miami starter, Tannehill has averaged just 3800 yards and 22 TD with 13 INT, pedestrian totals at best in an increasingly pass-happy league. It won’t get any easier for the young QB entering his sixth full season with the loss of Jarvis Landry to the Browns. There isn’t much reason to invest in Tannehill outside of 2 QB formats with soo many other strong options available.

While losing Landry will be a blow to the receiving corps, the Dolphins backfield has only gotten better. 2017 saw Kenyan Drake stake his claim as the teams feature back as he averaged 18 carries, 89 yards with 3 catches for 30 yards over the final five games of the year. Drake can play on all three downs and he was a big reason why Miami was willing to ship Jay Ajayi over to the Eagles mid-season. Drake will be spelled by veteran iron man Frank Gore and incoming rookie Kalen Ballage. Gore will siphon off 6-8 carries again and Ballage ability to contribute as an every-down back as well will keep him in the mix holding back Drake’s overall value some. Drake is a solid RB2 with upside and while many will draft Gore as the handcuff, my preference in Ballage. Ballage looks like David Johnson on paper and while his production was hampered in college due to a timeshare at Arizona State, he has all the earmarks of a fantasy sleeper.

Danny Amendola comes to Miami in hopes of filling the gaping hole left by Landry. Amendola showed his chops as a solid slot man at New England but he comes with considerable risk due to his injury history and age. The primary weapon for Tannehill will be DeVante Parker as he enters his fourth year. Parker had flashed signs of breaking out in 2016 before some regression in 2017. A major factor for that could have been losing Tannehill to injury for all of 2017 and having to deal with the dynamic duo of Jay Cutler and Matt Moore for a season. Playing across from Parker with Amendola in the slot will be one of the ultimate deep ball threats in Kenny Stills. Stills has averaged 16.1 yards per catch over his 79 games played in the NFL and he’ll make for a solid compliment to Parker and Amendola with Albert Wilson checking in as slot insurance. Take Parker as a WR2, Stills as a WR3 and Amendola as a WR3 in PPR formats.

The Dolphins finally punted on the Julius Thomas experiment and took a big swing to fix the position by drafting talented Mike Gesicki in the second round of the 2018 draft. Gesicki is a prolific pass catcher who will struggle as a blocker and that could leave room for journeyman AJ Derby to steal playing time. Derby flashed some receiving skills at Denver grabbing 19 passes for 224 yards and 2 TD in 9 games before being shipped to the Dolphins where he quickly fell flat. This will be a position battle to watch but if Gesicki emerges as the starter he would be a solid fantasy sleeper at tight end.

2018 Projections

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Ben Stecker

Author SportsTalkLine.com at SportsTalkLine

Writer, sports connoisseur, Pacific Northwesterner. Rarely met a sport I couldn't be great friends with. Follow me on twitter @Softball_Guy

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