Will Fuller’s debut with the Dolphins will have to wait for at least a week. He’s attending to a non-football matter, says coach Brian Flores.
Fuller didn’t play in the team’s opener as he completed a suspension from last year for violating the league’s rules against performance-enhancing drugs. Now he’s attending to what Flores calls a personal issue. “We support Will and we’ll take it one day at a time,” Flores said in an article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
“Things arise in our lives. That’s kind of what he’s dealing with right now,” Flores says. “He has our support. He has my support. And is it a surprise? Things happen. They happen and they’re not part of your normal everyday — yeah, it’s a surprise from that standpoint. But, we deal with it. And he’s dealing with it and we’ll support him. Just make our adjustments as a team, play without him, and move forward.”
From a fantasy standpoint, this makes the team’s other pass catchers look more appealing. Guys like Jaylen Waddle, DeVante Parker and Mike Gesicki should potentially see a few more targets. (If you put a player like Preston Williams or Mack Hollins on the field where Fuller was going to play, you’re not going to throw as many passes to that position.)
There’s no timeline for Fuller’s return, but he’s still on the team’s 53-man roster. If the Dolphins believed there was a good chance he’d be gone for a month or more, they would potentially look to put him on some kind of reserve list.
Fuller spent his first five seasons with Houston. He’s missed games every season, but when he’s been healthy, he’s been productive. Over the last three years, he’s averaged 4.6 catches for 71 yards in 29 games, with 15 TDs. Using PPR scoring, that would rank him 21st in per-game production among wide receivers who’ve started at least half the time – ahead of DK Metcalf, Kenny Golladay, DJ Moore, Kenny Golladay, Brandin Cooks and others.
| WIDE RECEIVERS PER GAME (last 3 yrs) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | No | Yds | TD | PPR |
| Davante Adams | 41 | 7.5 | 91.6 | .89 | 22.1 |
| Michael Thomas | 39 | 8.1 | 91.5 | .46 | 19.9 |
| Tyreek Hill | 43 | 5.4 | 84.1 | .88 | 19.8 |
| DeAndre Hopkins | 47 | 7.1 | 88.2 | .53 | 19.1 |
| Antonio Brown | 24 | 6.4 | 76.5 | .83 | 19.0 |
| Julio Jones | 40 | 6.6 | 96.1 | .43 | 18.8 |
| Stefon Diggs | 46 | 6.3 | 80.1 | .51 | 17.7 |
| Mike Evans | 45 | 5.0 | 81.9 | .67 | 17.2 |
| Keenan Allen | 46 | 6.5 | 73.6 | .45 | 16.8 |
| Adam Thielen | 41 | 5.3 | 66.2 | .75 | 16.5 |
| Robert Woods | 47 | 5.7 | 70.0 | .38 | 15.9 |
| Cooper Kupp | 39 | 5.8 | 69.3 | .49 | 15.8 |
| Chris Godwin | 41 | 5.0 | 72.3 | .58 | 15.8 |
| Calvin Ridley | 44 | 4.9 | 69.6 | .61 | 15.7 |
| A.J. Brown | 30 | 4.1 | 70.9 | .70 | 15.6 |
| Julian Edelman | 34 | 5.7 | 67.1 | .38 | 15.3 |
| Tyler Lockett | 48 | 5.0 | 64.1 | .59 | 15.1 |
| Allen Robinson | 45 | 5.7 | 70.0 | .38 | 15.0 |
| Amari Cooper | 47 | 5.2 | 70.4 | .43 | 15.0 |
| Odell Beckham | 35 | 5.0 | 68.7 | .42 | 14.8 |
| Will Fuller | 29 | 4.6 | 70.8 | .52 | 14.8 |
| JuJu Smith-Schuster | 44 | 5.7 | 63.8 | .45 | 14.8 |
| DK Metcalf | 32 | 4.4 | 68.8 | .54 | 14.6 |
| Kenny Golladay | 36 | 4.3 | 72.0 | .50 | 14.5 |
| Terry McLaurin | 29 | 5.0 | 70.2 | .38 | 14.4 |
| Tyler Boyd | 45 | 5.4 | 64.8 | .36 | 14.2 |
| Marvin Jones | 38 | 4.6 | 59.6 | .61 | 14.1 |
| DJ Moore | 40 | 4.9 | 74.1 | .23 | 14.1 |
| Jarvis Landry | 47 | 5.0 | 63.6 | .34 | 13.7 |
| T.Y. Hilton | 39 | 4.5 | 64.9 | .42 | 13.5 |
| Diontae Johnson | 29 | 4.9 | 53.8 | .45 | 13.2 |
| Brandin Cooks | 45 | 4.5 | 65.3 | .31 | 13.2 |
| Sterling Shepard | 38 | 5.0 | 55.4 | .32 | 12.8 |
| Emmanuel Sanders | 43 | 4.6 | 57.3 | .38 | 12.8 |
| DJ Chark | 31 | 4.3 | 57.1 | .43 | 12.6 |
| Curtis Samuel | 37 | 4.1 | 48.5 | .38 | 12.3 |
| Jamison Crowder | 37 | 4.5 | 51.9 | .40 | 12.2 |
| Robby Anderson | 46 | 4.3 | 57.1 | .32 | 11.9 |
| DeVante Parker | 40 | 4.0 | 57.6 | .35 | 11.8 |
| Alshon Jeffery | 28 | 4.1 | 51.7 | .43 | 11.8 |
—Ian Allan