Dolphins Fantasy Football Start/Sit: Week 12
The Dolphins will be huge underdogs when they travel to Gillette Stadium to take on the Patriots, but opportunities could be there for fantasy production.
It’s not a good feel for the Miami Dolphins to take on the New England Patriots for the first time this season. Losers of four straight, the Dolphins are trending down the standings, and losing grip of any playoff hopes they have. The Patriots on the other hand, are winners of six straight, and again looking like the team to beat in the AFC. Not many are giving the Dolphins much of a chance in this one as the Patriots are 16-point favorites at home.
Although the Dolphins are huge underdogs to win the game, it doesn’t mean that fantasy owners should shy away from starting their lead players. The Patriots defense has improved over recent weeks, but they still give up quite a few fantasy points in key positions. Let’s take a look at which of those Dolphins players are worth rostering this week.
Jay Cutler has been ruled out this Sunday with a concussion so Moore will get his second start of the season. Moore did well in relief of Cutler last week when he entered the game for the second half. He helped bring the Dolphins back in the game, but ultimately, the team fell short. Despite the valiant effort, and the fact that the Patriots have been kind to quarterbacks this season, Moore is not on the fantasy radar, especially with the fantasy playoffs right around the corner.
Sit
After two gritty performances in a leading role, Drake put up his first dud since Miami traded away Jay Ajayi. The lack of touches as a result of sharing the workload with Damien Williams caught up with Drake in this one. It was the second straight week where Drake recorded less than 10 touches, giving the impression that Drake will need to break one for a huge gain similar to how he did against Oakland and Carolina, in order to have any kind of fantasy value. The Dolphins will likely get down by a lot at some point of this game, and be forced to abandon the run. Drake excels in the passing game, but he’s best left on the bench this week.
Sit
Williams is in the same position as Drake when it comes to fantasy production. Williams benefited from a long 69-yard run last week in the first quarter, shortly followed by a 24-yard reception, but he was quiet after that. As a part of the splitting workload, Williams continues to get the start, but it is Drake that the coaching staff is leaning on as the game goes on. Drake is the better on-the-ground runner between the two, but otherwise their games are spitting images of each other. So like Drake, Williams should be left off of starting lineups.
Sit
Landry continues to show why he is Miami’s leading receiver, and how foolish they would be if they let him walk this off-season. Against Tampa Bay, Landry recorded his sixth touchdown of the season, which is a new career-high for him. No matter who is under center for the Dolphins, Landry will continue to see double-digit targets on a regular basis. The Patriots give up a ton of fantasy points to receivers, and this is a great opportunity for Landry to build on this career season.
Start
Effort has always been a word tossed around when discussing Parker, and whether or not he’s giving enough on each play. I can say that I was in attendance for the Dolphins hosting the Bucs, and I made it a point to pay extra attention to Parker play-by-play. Honestly, I didn’t like what I saw at all. The Bucs have been one of the worst defenses this season, particularly against receivers.
Despite the friendly matchup, Parker hardly ever created separation, and did not record his first completion until the third quarter. Meanwhile, Landry and Kenny Stills were having a field day. Parker did seem to give less than full effort on several occasions, indicating that the Dolphins will have some serious thinking to do regarding his future with the company. On paper, this looks like a great matchup for Parker fantasy owners, but he’s not trusting enough, especially since he has just one touchdown on the year.
Sit
Stills had a career-game against Tampa Bay with 180 yards receiving and a touchdown off of seven receptions. Part of the reason for the huge game was that Stills was able to take advantage of the Bucs secondary, but also because Matt Moore was inserted at quarterback. Moore and Stills have had a special kind of chemistry, and Stills has even been the beneficiary of Moore’s last four touchdown passes.
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Stills has seen at least eight targets thrown his way in four of the last five games. With Moore as the quarterback, Stills catapults to WR2 status, and at worst a high volume FLEX option. We shouldn’t expect to see a repeat performance against these Patriots, but a solid one nonetheless.
Start
The Patriots are in the bottom 10 against tight ends this season. So does that mean Thomas should be on your fantasy radar this Sunday? No, no it does not.
Sit
Defense
Tom Brady. Rob Gronkowski. Brandin Cooks. A Dolphins defense trending in the wrong direction week after week. You know what to do here.
Sit