With last month’s draft in the rear view mirror, mock fantasy drafts have begun to surface, marking the unofficial start to the new fantasy football season. There is a sense, however, that times are changing as fantasy football continues to evolve to counter different schematic trends sweeping the league.
Despite Reggie Bush’s ability to stay on the field and deliver a career-best year, Fabiano is approaching the running back’s outlook with a bit of skepticism, if only because so many starting backs–Adrian Peterson, Jamaal Charles, etc.–were injured last season. His fantasy mentality mirrors the league’s shift back towards a more prominent two-back system.…
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No matter who wins the Dolphins’ quarterback competition heading into the season, one thing has become evident. They better be ready to play fast.
“We’re going to be snap that ball at 33 seconds every time,” Garrard said. “It’s going to be non-stop, and defenses will be tired because they won’t even get to put their hand on the ground. You’ll see a lot of d-linemen just standing up, just trying to do the best that they can.”
That tempo has been the most consistent overlying theme of the on-field portion of the offseason, extending to all facets of the team, defense and special teams included.…
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Because there’s no real foolproof formula for how to handle a rookie quarterback–all the current stars seem to have taken a different route to success–it will be interesting to see how the Dolphins work first-round pick Ryan Tannehill into the offense.
There’s growing sentiment that Tannehill could start from the outset because he already has a firm grasp on the playbook. Strock, though, feels that it’s not just about how well you understand your own offensive concepts. You also need to account for what you’re seeing across the line of scrimmage.
“A lot of similarities for him,” Strock said.…
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Perhaps because of precedent and the unknown factor surrounding his arrival from Canada, Jerome Messam will be one of the most intriguing Dolphins to watch this summer.
For starters, he’s having to adapt to the infamous South Florida heat and humidity.
“Guys have said I haven’t seen anything yet,” said Messam, who grew up in Toronto. “So when July and August comes around, that’s when I get the real test.”
The Dolphins, of course, already have a significant contributor, Cameron Wake, who made the jump from Canada. Having a teammate who has successfully made the move to the NFL could ease the transition for Messam, who’s played his played his entire career north of the border.…
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The reverberations from Rob Gronkowski’s record-breaking 2011 season are still being felt across the league.
His success will likely spawn a new breed of seam-busting tight ends because the NFL is, of course, a copycat league. This, perhaps, was the Dolphins’ reasoning behind taking Michael Egnew in the third round of last month’s draft.
CBSSports.com’s Rob Rang could see that being the case, believing Egnew could be used to create mismatches for Dolphins receivers similar to the way Joe Philbin used Jermichael Finley in Green Bay.
“With outside linebackers and safeties often asked to cover him down the seam, few defenses are able to allocate enough defenders to bracket any of the Packers’ receivers, often leaving them one on one for (Aaron) Rodgers to exploit,” Rang wrote.…
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