Start/Sit: Dolphins Fantasy Football Preview Week 5

It was downright ugly in Cincinnati as a team effort as well as individual fantasy performances. The Dolphins will look to bounce back in both categories this week against the Tennessee Titans.

As it stands, the Miami Dolphins scheduled meeting with the Tennessee Titans will go on as planned. There is the chance the game possibly gets moved to Monday night, but there are no plans at the moment of rescheduling to another weekend or moving the game out of South Florida.

The Dolphins elected to cancel practice, however, in preparation for Hurricane Matthew.

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Regardless, Miami needs a better overall performance from the players and the coaching staff to have a chance against Tennessee. Like the Dolphins, the Titans are also sitting at 1-3 but are much improved from their disappointing 3-13 season last year that netted them the #1 overall pick before trading it. While they added some weapons on offense, much of the credit has to go to the improvement of the defense.

Miami dominated in last year’s meeting in the first of back-to-back blowout victories that gave Dolphins fans false hope that a turnaround was on the horizon under then interim head coach Dan Campbell. This year’s meeting is expected to be much more competitive. Here’s a look at this week’s start/sit for Miami.

Ryan Tannehill

It was a long night for Tannehill last Thursday to say the least. After a deep touchdown pass to Kenny Stills for 74 yards on the team’s second play from scrimmage, Tannehill and the offense had no answers going forward. History tells us that Tannehill is set for a big game based off his bad performance last week.

Critics of Tannehill have claimed he’s too inconsistent. Coincidentally, his inconsistencies are consistent with how he generally follows a bad game with a very good one. Did you get all that? In last year’s meeting, Tannehill put up some pretty solid numbers. He finished with 266 yards throwing on 22-of-29 with two touchdowns, but also threw two picks.

As I mentioned earlier, the Titans are an improved defense this year. The offensive line continues to struggle giving Tannehill protection, but they do expect Mike Pouncey back this week. The matchup simply is not a great one. This could be a week that Tannehill puts up amazing fantasy numbers, but I’m not ready to risk it.

Sit

Jarvis Landry

Landry managed to put up respectable numbers, although not impressive, against the Bengals. His 61 yards were a disappointment for standard leagues, but the seven receptions he reeled in helped out some in PPR formats. He should see better production this week against the Titans.

The Titans are improved on defense, but still give up a ton of yards to receivers. In the first three weeks of the season, they allowed at least one opposing receiver to go for over 100 yards. The Texans Will Fuller almost reached the century mark against them last week in his best game thus far as a rookie. Landry is the Dolphins best candidate to do the same.

Start

DeVante Parker

The Titans are one of the best ranked defenses to start the season against the run. With virtually no running game, I’m expecting the Dolphins to go pass heavy in Sunday’s contest. DeVante Parker was nonexistent against Cincinnati, but as Miami’s #2 receiver Tannehill will look to get him involved.

Kenny Stills takes some targets away from Parker with his ability to go deep. Stills benefited from that last week with his 74-yard touchdown reception. It was his only catch of the evening. The Dolphins didn’t waste a first round pick on Parker for nothing though, and now that he’s 100 percent healthy Miami needs to make him more of a priority. Parker has real WR3 potential this week with WR2 upside.

Start

Arian Foster/Jay Ajayi

Foster was able to practice on Wednesday, but it’s still up in the air as to whether he will suit up against the Titans or not. During his absence, the Dolphins have been using a committee which has not made matters any better. Head coach Adam Gase has indicated he would like to feature just one or two backs, but those plans may have to be put on hold for at least one more week.

Ajayi has been the featured back in the committee approach, but will eventually have to hand the reigns back to Foster. As I mentioned, the Titans defense is very good against the run, making for an unfavorable matchup for Dolphins running backs. The running back situation has been a mess in South Florida since the start of the season, and may continue that way throughout.

At this point, it’s not a matter of whether to sit or start Dolphins running backs, but whether to keep or drop. Foster may be worth holding on to for the moment, but I’d look at other options if available through the waiver wire. Ajayi should be dropped in all leagues, and avoid both running backs in all DFS plays.

Sit