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Miami Dolphins

Ryan Tannehill goes down with knee injury

Ryan Tannehill looks like he could be this year’s Teddy Bridgewater. He went down with a non-contact knee injury today, and the Dolphins are waiting to see what the damage is.

Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald says the Dolphins are waiting for the results of an MRI. The best-case scenario is that Tannehill merely hyperextended his knee. But it’s possible he sprained his PCL, which could shelve him for 2-8 weeks. And it’s possible he re-injured his ACL, which potentially could lead to a season-ending surgery.

Prior to this incident, Tannehill was only the 20th quarterback on our board, so no real reason to draft him right now.

For fantasy purposes, the more interesting issue is how to handle Miami’s pass catchers if Tannehill is sidelined. The offense didn’t miss him much when he was hurt last year. Matt Moore threw 4, 2 and 2 touchdowns against the Jets, Bills and Patriots, and I was surprised how well he played at Pittsburgh. Despite getting clobbered on a helmet-to-helmet hit in the second quarter, he completed over 80 percent of his passes, finishing with 289 yards and a touchdown.

If Tannehill is out for an extended period, the Dolphins should add a capable quarterback. Jay Cutler would be one possibility; he played for Adam Gase in Chicago. Colin Kaepernick is out there, and he actually played his best game of the season at Miami last year, passing for 296 yards and 3 TDs while also running for 113 yards. But I don’t think Kaepernick fits Miami’s system as well as Cutler – doesn’t have the accuracy and decision-making ability. I’m not solid on Cutler either, frankly, making me think they’d just go with Moore.

My sense is there isn’t a sneaky fantasy value here waiting to be uncovered. Gase picked up the passing guru label when Peyton Manning was shredding defenses with Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders. But since leaving Denver, he’s overseen conservative, plodding offenses. In Chicago in 2015, his running backs had the most rushing attempts in the league. And last year in Miami, the Dolphins got good (going 9-1 down the stretch) when they took the ball out of Tannehill’s hands and started running Jay Ajayi.

In the last two years, Gase’s offenses have averaged 236 passing yards per game. Only seven offenses in that span have averaged fewer passing yards, and it’s a pretty meager bunch, including Rams, 49ers, Vikings, Texans and Kansas City, along with the run-dominated Cowboys and Bills.

It’s fun to kick around in August the possibility that Julius Thomas will bounce back or DeVante Parker will break out. But once the real games start in September, neither is particularly likely.

PASSING YARDS SINCE 2015
TeamRunTDRPassTDP
New Orleans Saints3,2333310,46370
Atlanta Falcons3,534339,56259
New England Patriots3,276339,26868
Washington Redskins3,262269,24255
San Diego Chargers2,868149,24163
Arizona Cardinals3,649369,20063
Pittsburgh Steelers3,484299,19959
Baltimore Ravens2,941188,79241
Detroit Lions2,645168,79057
New York Giants3,021118,52762
Seattle Seahawks3,859238,48357
Indianapolis Colts3,066198,41958
Jacksonville Jaguars3,104138,35359
Cincinnati Bengals3,574358,31049
Green Bay Packers3,551198,27071
Oakland Raiders3,379248,26663
Tampa Bay Buccaneers3,778208,20751
Philadelphia Eagles3,556318,13939
Denver Broncos3,202248,13039
Chicago Bears3,589237,98240
Miami Dolphins3,320257,94751
Cleveland Browns3,241187,84935
Carolina Panthers4,096357,83556
New York Jets3,670217,81549
Tennessee Titans3,672267,61354
Adam Gase3,678277,55948
Houston Texans3,590157,49744
Dallas Cowboys4,286327,47641
Kansas City Chiefs3,792347,40739
Minnesota Vikings3,416277,36534
Buffalo Bills5,062486,85040
San Francisco 49ers3,563226,81237
Los Angeles Rams3,208256,24425

—Ian Allan

Fantasy Index