Second and Third Year Player Development: Week Five

In this weekly column, I typically explore some young players who haven’t made much of a consistent impact to date. Some players may be available on your waiver wire, some may be available via a cheap or moderate trade.  Acquiring or not acquiring one of these players could decide how well your dynasty or keeper team does for the next few years.  This week I will be taking a look at two Miami Dolphins second year players running back Lamar Miller and quarterback Ryan Tannehill. I focused on their most recent matchup to draw the majority of my insight, but had to go back to Week Two for Miller due to his limited playing time in Week Five.

Lamar Miller, RB MIA

The second year back has not taken the reigns on the full-time job yet.  In fact,some expected Miller to be a fantasy superstar by now or at least the starter based on his 57 touches for close to 300 yards last season. Despite the preseason hype, Miller continues to split carries with third year plodding back Daniel Thomas. Thomas is a converted quarterback who averages less than three yards per carry, but he is a strong short yardage runner and catches the ball well. Miller, however, needs work on his short yardage game and has caught less than 60% of his targets despite having good hands.

The second year back continues to start each game, but was downright pathetic against Ravens with his seven carries for 15 yards.  In that game, Miller would glide when he should have powered thru tacklers.  He was stuffed on two consecutive one yard to go situations. On each of his runs, Miller did not show much leg drive and was quickly beaten to the outside by linebackers.  The young running back needs to pick up his feet and get small in the hole.

Miller looked better against the Colts during their Week Two game.  He glided thru the line without being touched as he got small and squirted away from defenders. He kept churning his legs, leaning forward, and used a little shoulder shake to fake out the defense.  I liked the way Miller would take a decisive step and thrust himself to the outside to break outside contain.  Although he only has decent vision, Miller knows how to follow his blockers, but has suspect balance which causes him to lose his feet regularly. I am losing faith in Miller on a weekly basis.  He has the talent to be a decent dynasty RB2, but I’m not sure he will ever put it together.  As long as he is in a timeshare, Miller is only worth a flex play at best.

Ryan Tannehill, QB MIA

Miami was so smitten with the young quarterback in the first round last season that they brought along his college head coach as his offensive coordinator.  Tannehill started off his college career as a wide receiver and played less than two full seasons as a college quarterback. This career path has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are he is a very athletic player who understands probably better than anyone else on how receivers run routes, where to place the ball to give the player the best chance to make the play as well as protect themselves, and to trust what the pass catchers are telling him. The disadvantages are that Tannehill has not seen as many defensive schemes, can be more inclined to make a play relying on his athletic ability vs. using the other Miami offensive playmakers.

Against the Ravens, he did a decent job setting his feet and making quick decisions.  One of his first throws almost got intercepted as he decided to throw a touch pass down the sideline, but he was fortunate the defensive back did not get his second foot in bounds. It was easy to notice the young quarterback senses pressure well from the outside, but struggles to feel the pocket collapsing from the middle.  He needs to roll out more to get away from that pressure. For almost the entire first half, Tannehill was focusing the majority of his passes to the right side of the field as he trusted his protection and his ability to throw the ball on the run from that side.  The young quarterback has a strong arm and nice ball placement when he has a chance to set his feet before the throw. He is good with ball fakes and knows how to run with the ball if the defense isn’t ready for him.

Even though Tannehill prefers to throw the ball long, he is more accurate with passes in the five to ten yard range, especially when he finds those receivers in space.  The young quarterback even found success throwing a rainbow strike to Mike Wallace as he let the receiver run under the ball, despite Wallace being double covered and the receiver dropping a wide open pass near the end zone earlier in the quarter. He isn’t afraid to stand tall in the pocket and is willing to take a hit if it means completing a downfield throw.  Tannehill did a great job finding the right spot to hit Charles Clay with the ball on the front corner of the end zone to bring the Dolphins from behind vs. the Ravens. His most impressive throw of the day was a bootleg on a fourth and ten play with less than a minute thirty seconds left in the game as Tannehill completed a pass across his body for a 40 yard gain. It is worrisome about the hits he takes though.

Unlike RG3 and Andrew Luck, Tannehill does not have a true superstar receiver, but he is getting the best out of Wallace, Brian Hartline, Clay, and Brandon Gibson.  This was his first game without a turnover, so if he can improve on that, Tannehill could climb dynasty ranks.  He is already a top 15 dynasty option at quarterback, but may be valued lower than that.  I would look to acquire him as a QB3 if you still can and trade away your QB2 for a position of need.  Aka – buy, buy, buy!

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