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One of the drawbacks to writing about Fantasy Football is the fact you essentially allow a public glimpse into your own personal top-secret strategy book. There are no secrets here; everyone knows my sleepers, my positional rankings and my “bro”mances before each draft of the leagues I participate in. I am an open book.
With that, I again open said book and let you in on some very personal information. I have a huge fantasy football man crush on Miami Dolphins running back Lamar Miller. In fact, the only reason I am not wearing a Miller jersey and Dolphins ball cap while writing this piece is because I don’t own one. Oh yeah, it’s that bad.
I do come equipped with logic. There are two things from which I base all my Fantasy Football rants, and no a dart and dartboard is not one of them. My first line of defense is stats. I’m not even going to try and conceal my obsession; I am a numbers nerd through and through. In fact I was Moneyball before Moneyball was cool.
My secondary fall back is game footage. Film allows one to see the parts of a game you may have overlooked during live view. The way I see it, numbers and film are an unbiased look at production – or lack there of.
The film on Miller shows his vision, his one cut style, his explosion through the line and his illusive quickness through traffic. And this kid is fast. When he gets in the open field, good luck catching him. Finally and most impressive is his tremendous stop and go acceleration. He has tremendous athleticism.
Here’s another little morsel. The Dolphins have done an impressive job in the offseason making this team better. I may be one of the few outside the borders of Miami-Dade County to say this, but I believe the Dolphins offense is beginning to develop something we in the Fantasy Football world call explosion. This isn’t a work in progress; the Dolphins offense is fantasy relevant now.
With a year of maturity under impressive second-year quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s belt and the acquisition of Mike Wallace and Brandon Gibson in free agency, you can expect the Dolphins to run a more open playbook including increased spread offenses with three receiver sets. That alone increases the value of Miller, as the holes will be there.
Maybe an even bigger shot to the Miller value, the Dolphins let Reggie Bush go to the Detroit Lions in the offseason. This is Miller’s show now.
The stage is most certainly set and the proverbial pieces are in place for Miller to record a huge year statistically in Fantasy Football. This guy is a solid number two option that is ranked outside the top 20 of most 2013 Fantasy Football player rankings. Which basically translates to Miller coming cheap; go get him.
Jim Heath is a Fantasy Football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @jim_heath, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
