Miami Dolphins: Fantasy Impact

Day two of my series takes us to the Miami Dolphins.  Each starting fantasy position will be examined.  Hopefully you enjoy the comments and can provide some counter-comments along the way.

QB—Chad Pennington had a very consistent comeback campaign in 2008.  He will probably do more of the same in 2009.  That means a slightly above average season for Pennington in terms of fantasy.  I would strictly draft him as a bye week filler. Pat White will mostly serve as the "Wildcat" QB for 2009.

RB—Ronnie Brown will probably receive the bulk of the carries in Miami in 2009 for a few reasons. 

He is now another year removed from his knee surgery.  Secondly, Ricky Williams continues his decline and looks like a player just meeting his contractual obligations to be on the roster at this time. The final reason is that it is a contract year for him. 

Despite all of those positives, I still see Brown only cracking the top ten to fifteen running backs for fantasy, due to a much more difficult schedule that the team faces this season.

WR—Ted Ginn Jr., Greg Camarillo, and Davone Bess should lineup as the starting wideouts for 2009. 

Ginn is really the only receiver that has some fantasy value on the team.  He will be limited by Pennington’s sluggish arm, and won’t be able to fully become the deep threat that he should be until 2010 when Chad Henne takes over the starting role as QB.

TE—Anthony Fasano serves as the tight end.  He is nothing more than an average TE that gets about 450 yards and three or four receiving TD a season.  He is worth a look merely in the late rounds of your draft.

K—Dan Carpenter is a fairly average kicker and can get the job done when called upon, but he is not worth spending anything more than a last round selection on during your draft.

DEF/ST—The Miami defense and special teams unit finished ninth in fantasy points in the basic Yahoo scoring setup for 2008. 

Bringing back Jason Taylor should provide slightly more of a pass rush in 2009.  The team did lose many of the players it had in the secondary last year. 

The schedule this year also brings much more dynamic offenses to the table for the team to face in 2009.  For this reason, I foresee the defensive ranking dropping into the 15th to 20th ranking in overall fantasy points for 2009.

Tomorrow, I will examine the New England Patriots.

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