Miami Dolphins Fantasy Football 2021: What to Remember

The Miami Dolphins had a turbulent 2021, which ended with the canning of Brian Flores. It was a disaster from soup to nuts, with the Dolphins actively courting Deshaun “two dozen sexual assault allegations” Watson to Brian Flores telling Tua they should have drafted Mac Jones, to… whatever it is that happened to Myles Gaskin. All-in-all, the Dolphins have a lot of young talent, a lot of draft capital and cap space, and a new head coach on the horizon. Things are looking up for the Miami Dolphins, but what should we take from their disastrous 2021 campaign for 2022 fantasy football?

From weeks one through fifteen, DeVante Parker played in just seven games but averaged eight targets, five catches, and 65 yards per game in that span. I went out and told everyone who would listen to start DeVante Parker in week sixteen. What’d he do? Zero targets. Massive oof. After he had bounced everyone from the playoffs, he bounced back with 17 targets in his last two games. All told, we can’t forget about DeVante Parker. He averaged over seven targets per game and dropped under that figure just twice in ten games. He’s going to be an under-the-radar smash draft pick in 2022, you just can’t forget those targets.
It’s hard to say that Myles Gaskin didn’t get an opportunity to produce this year. He ranked tenth in targets, seventh in receptions, twenty-second in running back carries, and twenty-first in red zone carries. Gaskin had every opportunity to produce this season he just… didn’t. His yards per carry dropped by over half a yard but that isn’t really the damning part of his profile: his yards per target, of which he was a league leader in 2020, dropped to 7 yards per target. His yards per carry, as a reminder, was a paltry 3.5. Gaskin had plenty of targets and opportunities, he just went nowhere with them.
Tua Tagovailoa gets a reputation for being a dink-and-dunk artist, and with good reason. He “boasts” the #33 air yards per attempt metric in the league, with a very nice 6.9 yards per attempt. This probably had something to do with Tua being dead last in the league in pocket time, per pro-football-reference.com, which measures time to throw or time to the pocket collapsing. Given that the Dolphins had the lowest pass block win rate in the league, I think I can pinpoint the issue with Tua. Tua actually overcame the line, thanks to his tenth-ranked pressured completion percentage (per playerprofiler.com). If the Dolphins do the needful (overspend to revamp the offensive line), then Tua is your deep quarterback to target in 2022.
If you want a high-volume tight end who has a chance to break through with double-digit touchdowns next year, then Mike Gesicki is your man. He ranked fourth in tight end targets, third in routes run, first in slot snaps, third in air yards, and sixth in deep targets. He was top-eight in both receptions and receiving yards this year, notching 73 catches for 780 yards. The major bugaboo? Two touchdowns on 73 catches, after getting six on 53 catches in 2020 and five on 51 catches in 2019. The two touchdowns are obviously an aberration, and if you add the extra 18 fantasy points onto his PPR rank, then he’s a top-five tight end.
We couldn’t talk about the Miami Dolphins without talking about Jaylen Waddle. The rookie wide receiver must curse the gods that Ja’Marr Chase exists and is taking all his rookie year publicity. Waddle ended the year with 104 receptions and 1,015 receiving yards (and six touchdowns). That is literally a historic rookie season! Jaylen Waddle became the second wide receiver in NFL history to notch 100 catches and 1,000 yards their rookie year, joining Anquan Boldin for that honor. Sure, he became the 27th rookie to finish their first season with at least 1,000 yards. But, the list of rookie wide receivers with at least 100 catches, though? Still two names long: Anquan Boldin and Jaylen Waddle.