The Miami Dolphins, as they are currently constituted, added or re-signed Tight End Mike Gesicki, Running Backs Chase Edmonds & Raheem Mostert, Wide Receiver Cedrick Wilson and Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Unlike their fellow Floridians, the Jaguars, their moves seem to have some heft behind them. New Head Coach Mike McDaniels has a whole new set of toys to work with in Miami, so let’s see how they will fare in 2022 fantasy football.
Teddy Bridgewater, Quarterback
Let’s get this out of the way. The Dolphins needed a backup quarterback, and they signed a backup quarterback. Bridgewater is the perfect backup QB because he is not a threat to Tua Tagovailoa’s starting job, and should Tua miss more games (he missed four games in 2021), the Dolphins have a good real-life secondary option behind Tua. That’s it, that’s all there is to think about Bridgewater. In deep 2QB leagues, he’s a draft-and-stash handcuff for Tua because if Tua t**rs his *CL (can’t put that into the universe) then you have a guy you empty your FAB to acquire with Bridgewater.
Chase Edmonds, Running Back
Fantasy football circles were all a-flutter with Chase Edmonds’ addition to the Miami Dolphins backfield. After all, he does everything incumbent Myles Gaskin does, but better. The Dolphins had a clear upgrade at running back and he should take over the majority of shares in the Dolphins’ backfield. Edmonds had a lot of hype going into 2021, but injuries derailed a nice little season (79.8 yards on 9 carries and 4 catches per game prior to his injury). Edmonds tried to gut it out at the end of the year but the production mostly wasn’t there. I don’t hold that against him.
Now, with the Dolphins, he’s boldly going where no pass-catching running back has gone before: into the San Francisco iteration of the Kyle Shanahan offense. Now, I don’t think Mike McDaniel is going to copy-and-paste Shanny’s system (tagging Mike Gesicki ensured that) but the 49ers’ system simply does not throw to non-FB running backs. Over the last three years, the most targeted 49ers’ running back averaged 34 targets per season or just about two targets per game. That doesn’t exactly work with Chase Edmonds’ play style. So, depending on price… I’m out on Chase Edmonds. I’m not quite sure what exactly the Dolphins are planning on doing with him, and with that uncertainty, I am out. Oh wait, they signed oft-injured Raheem Mostert? Nevermind, I’m in. Edmonds will likely get the lion’s share of the carries in at least 10 games this season and provides decent flex value with top-20 RB upside without Mostert.
Raheem Mostert, Running Back
Mike McDaniel followed the Robert Saleh School of Offensive Installations and snagged a 49er running back to help transition his team to the new offense. Saleh did it with Tevin Coleman, and McDaniel did it with the more talented (but more fragile) Raheem Mostert. Mostert spent most of 2021 on the shelf, getting two touches for 20 yards before exploding is a spectacular ball of dust. This marked the fourth time in five years that Mostert both played for San Francisco, and missed at least 5 games. He’s only topped 11 games played once in his seven-year career. That’s the main rub with Raheem Mostert: his health. His talent has never been in doubt, as he averaged 5.67 yards per carry with the Niners, but he also couldn’t stay healthy, playing in just 46 games from 2016 through 2021 with San Francisco.
Mostert and Edmonds will probably go back-to-back in drafts, and I hope that you can snag them both. Honestly, I like them better in salary cap drafts, where they will likely go for about $10 combined thanks to each stealing the other’s value in drafts.
Cedrick Wilson, Wide Receiver
I am going to be brutally honest, here: I don’t see it. A lot of people on fantasy football Twitter got extremely hyped up about Cedrick Wilson. But, I fail to see a distinction between Cedrick Wilson and the other WR3 or WR4 flotsam and jetsam that fantasy twitter has fallen in love with on the Miami Dolphins. Wilson isn’t particularly big, he isn’t particularly fast, and he isn’t particularly… good. The Cowboys took him with a sixth-round compensatory pick in 2018 and just let him hang out at the end of their roster. The Cowboys, desperate to rebuild their wide receiver corps after letting Amari Cooper walk and signing currently-injured Michael Gallup to an extension, let him abscond off to Miami.
While people are excited for Wilson for fantasy football, he falls into the “Kendrick Bourne” class of receivers, as we call them on the Football Absurdity Podcast. He’s likely to help the Dolphins, and Tua, immediately. But, it will take a lot for him to be fantasy football relevant in anything but the deepest leagues.
And no, he’s not the new Deebo.
That’s nobody.
Mike Gesicki, Tight End
I’ll admit that this one threw me for a loop. Since we have zero data for what a Mike McDaniel offense might look like, we have to instead look at the Kyle Shanahan offense. Kyle Shanahan likes his tight ends to be good blockers. To be generous, we’ll just say this doesn’t apply to Gesicki. But, I love Mike Gesicki’s upside in an offense that just loves to throw the ball to both the tight end and which has been trying to build in a giant slot receiver for years. Gesicki quietly had 112 targets last year, and I honestly see that as his floor in what will prove to be a more potent offense in 2022. He’s settling into the Upper Blob range at tight end, somewhere around TE8 for me. If you can get him in the second half of your drafts, then giddy-up. You have something there.
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