The Biggest Fantasy Football Takeaways from the 2013 NFL Hall of Fame Game

As with all preseason games, the Hall of Fame game only has so much fantasy information.

The starters tend to play for only a brief amount of time (in this case, Tony Romo didn't even play a snap  because of recent surgery to remove a cyst), and even then, you only see them for so long against the top defensive players.

Still, there are a lot of little things you can use to factor into your rankings, if for no other reason than to eliminate some backups and depth players.

This is preseason football, so you have to dig to get to the good stuff.

Let's grab a shovel.

Don't Bother with Handcuffing Kyle Orton to Tony Romo

Normally you don't really bother with backups to your quarterbacks unless they are both high-caliber guys.

There are some cases—as with Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins—where it makes sense. Cousins can play, and we're unsure of Griffin's Week 1 availability, so having him is a good handcuff.

This is different.

When we last saw "King Neckbeard," Orton was floundering around in a Kansas City Chiefs jersey before ending up with Dallas last season.

Nothing has changed—he didn't "wow" anyone Sunday night against the Miami Dolphins.

Sure, there was nobody meaningful playing around him in the offense and he only threw a handful of passes, but he just still looks terribly average.

This could spell problems for some of Dallas' starters if Romo got hurt. Miles Austin has had issues with consistency the last few years, while Dez Bryant is still developing as a receiver and the step down from Romo to Orton would hurt both.

In the end, Orton's not worth having on your roster—if Romo is hurt, you should have other options in place.

Meanwhile, owners of Bryant, Austin and Jason Witten might want to cross their fingers.

Ryan Tannehill Is Still a Work in Progress

Ryan Tannehill was without both Mike Wallace and Brian Hartline, and it clearly had an impact even for the brief span he was in the game.

It'd be one thing if his receivers dropped the ball or ran the wrong routes, but several times Tannehill was the culprit. He threw behind Marvin McNutt twice and seemed a little rushed at times.

Some of that is the offensive line, but some of it is Tannehill.

This isn't to say he's bad or going to have a bad season. Just a reminder that he's a second-year player and is still getting his feet under him.

Hopefully Wallace and Hartline can join him sometime in the next few games so he can get some live-action work in with them.

Dolphins' Offensive Line Still a Work in Progress

Jonathan Martin's struggles in camp have been well-documented, though he has had more success of late.

Still, Martin and the entire offensive line are under heavy scrutiny.

Aside from Martin on the blind side, there are some concerns about Lance Louis and Tyson Clabo on the right side as well.

The line did give up some pressure Sunday night, and while it's not the end all, be all, it only serves to solidify concerns.

What does this mean for fantasy football?

Well, if the line cannot protect Ryan Tannehill, then he will not be able to find Brian Hartline and Mike Wallace. It will alter his output as well as theirs.

On the plus side, Martin and the rest of the offensive line have done well run blocking, which bodes well for running back Lamar Miller.

Lance Dunbar Is Your Handcuff for Oft-Injury DeMarco Murray

We know DeMarco Murray is going to get hurt, as he has for two straight seasons.

So who his backup is could be critical later on in the season.

It appears as though Lance Dunbar is your guy.

Dunbar was already having a great camp, so it really only solidified most people's thinking when they saw him run for 22 yards on just four carries.

He's got speed, is built well and runs hard. All of which was on display in his brief appearance in Sunday night's game.

This bears watching (many still like rookie Joseph Randle), but keep Dunbar on your list of guys worth grabbing in your draft.

We saw why again Sunday night.

Rookie Running Back Mike Gillislee Has Jumped Daniel Thomas in Miami's Backfield

While Lamar Miller was busy showing us why he's the primary back in Sunday's game, fifth-round rookie Mike Gillislee was putting the finishing touches on his leap over Daniel Thomas in the backfield pecking order.

Gillislee is a fluid, athletic running back who carries the ball with a mean streak and looked good, even if he only totaled 21 yards on seven carries.

Plus he can block, a skill which seems to elude Thomas.

While Miller and Gillislee were having solid nights, Thomas was pretty unimpressive on Sunday. He played much like his stats say he did—and four carries for five yards is not good.

While Miller looks good, we really don't know whether he can carry a full load as a lead back. So Gillislee is looking like the guy to own in the Miami backfield if Miller falters.

We Still Don't Know About Either Defense

As the offensive starters were either absent or barely in the game, we couldn't get much of a read on the defenses they faced.

The Miami offensive line had issues, but while some of that was due to the Cowboys' pass rush, you have to wonder how much of it was just that the offensive line isn't good right now.

Dallas' offensive line also had some problems, but again, we can't tell based on a few plays whether the defense was playing well or the line was just struggling.

Add the absence of guys like Miami's Dannell Ellerbe and you can't base much of your fantasy ranking on these defenses—whether in terms of team defense or individual defensive players—on what you saw Sunday night.

If you liked either defense before, you shouldn't have seen anything which will change that. If you weren't high on either, you didn't see anything to alter that either.

Keep reading the training camp reports and you'll get a better sense of what is really good or bad.

Which is really true for most of what we saw during the game. As with all preseason games, we only see so much of the "real thing" until we get to the third game when the starters play more.

But at least we got a look at some live action to give us a tad more perspective.

Andrew Garda is a member of the Pro Football Writers Association. He is also a member of the fantasy football staff at Footballguys.com and the NFL writer at CheeseheadTV.com. You can follow him at @andrew_garda on Twitter.