Andy Behrens and Matt Harmon sift through the hype surrounding Miami’s freshly revamped lineup.
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Video Transcript
ANDY BEHRENS: OK, I’m going to give you my most interesting team of 2022. And they grabbed the top spot here because almost everything is new. It’s the Miami Dolphins. This team added– no particular order– they added Terron Armstead, Tyreek Hill, Chase Edmonds, Cedric Wilson, Raheem Mostert, Sony Michel. Completely transformed the offense. Mike McDaniel hired as the new head coach.
He’s from the Shanahan tree. Former Niners OC and run game coordinator. He’s held all the titles. It is weirdly– all of a sudden, they managed to create a no-excuses environment for Tua. And he had plenty of excuses last year. Rarely pushed the ball downfield. Didn’t do it well.
But also only rarely had time. Terrible offensive line last season that is clearly going to be better. Is it league average with Armstead? It’s good. He’s a wall. So that’s fantastic. The difference of opinion that you’ll find on Tua, both with mainstream analysts within the fantasy world, is pretty wild.
So I don’t totally know what to expect. I feel like I’ve seen moments with Tua where you can kind of squint and see a quarterback who could really lead a dangerous offense. But again, there’s just no– they have everything now. They have a full covered of running backs. They have a full covered at receiver. They’ve got a line.
This is all on Tua. But sometimes– and maybe you can speak to this– Scott and I make this point all the time, that the NFL is such a continuity league. They have none of it. This is one of those– it rarely happens this way, this dramatically. This is new head coach, new coaching staff, new terminology, new everything. New receivers.
Everybody’s just meeting everybody for the first time. That can really screw up a month or two. So I don’t know. What’s your read on this team? Were they on your list?
MATT HARMON: Yeah, I don’t have them on my list. And almost– I sort of had to decide between them and Denver in that same vein of like, this is a very interesting collection of players, but like with the Broncos, I’m not sure I’m that gassed up about drafting anybody here for fantasy. You mentioned the continuity point. The only thing that remains the same is– well, I mean, obviously Mike Gesicki is there too, but Tua and Jaylen Waddle. That connection, I still think, is really bankable.
But how are you– how can you be very, very excited about Jaylen Waddle when they added a top five receiver in the league in Tyreek Hill? And the quarterback is– and I think Tua can be– I compared him to Andy Dalton last year, going back and forth, I think it was with Evan Silva on Twitter. And Dolphins fans hated that comparison, for whatever reason. I think because Andy Dalton has become, thanks to your team– I can’t wait to get to the Bears on this list, by the way– he’s become a bit of a meme the last couple of years.
But at his peak, Andy Dalton, 2015 was a guy who went along for a great ride with a bunch of really talented players. And I feel like we could see– and by the way, Andy Dalton was great in fantasy that year. I think it was 2015. We could see that type of year out of Tua this year. I think it’s a very fair comparison.
But obviously, there was always an untapped ceiling with– a ceiling that was never going to be tapped with Andy Dalton. Maybe that’s there with Tua. I don’t know. But I say all this to say, it’s still Tua. It’s not a Justin Herbert type. It’s not this guy that we assume is going to be the rising tide that lifts all boats. And there’s a hell of a lot of boats here that need lifting.
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, I’m not sure that Tua can– but I’ve got Tyreek Hill and Waddle both ranked as top 20 receivers. I don’t know that Tua can support two viable, absolutely every week wide receiver twos. At this point, now, I’ve had– between like magazine mock drafts and best balls and whatnot– I’ve had plenty of drafts. I don’t I don’t know if I’ve taken a Dolphin.
It hasn’t been Hill. Every time I see Tyreek Hill’s name next in my queue, I veer to another position. Haven’t taken him yet. But I’m super interested in this team and where they go from here.