When it comes to the Miami Dolphins trading for wide receiver Tyreek Hill from the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason, fantasy football owners were a lot less thrilled than Dolphins fans.
In terms of fantasy, it’s easy to make the leap and say that this trade was going to negatively affect those involved other than Tua Tagovailoa. Patrick Mahomes lost his top target, Hill wasn’t going to be catching passes from the best quarterback in the league and Jaylen Waddle, Miami’s top pass-catcher in 2021 would likely see some regression.
However, on a recent episode of ESPN’s “Fantasy Focus” podcast, NFL analyst Field Yates actually calmed those fantasy owners who feared that their investment in Waddle may have been sunk by Hill’s arrival.
“I think that the potential for lost volume this year, which, by the way, going down from 104 catches when you add Tyreek Hill who had 111 catches last year that’s logical,” Yates said. “It’s not going out on a limb, right? It was literally the most receptions by a rookie ever… Last year, he was what Jarvis Landry was when he played for the Dolphins during his first five seasons in the NFL which was super valuable for fantasy, but he evolved. I think Jaylen Waddle will evolve as a player. Again, he was, coming out of college, the guy we compared to Tyreek Hill, so I think yards per catch are likely to go up, and I think red-zone opportunities are likely to go up for Jaylen Waddle…”
This actually makes some sense. Waddle has said repeatedly that the aspect of his game that he’s working on the most is yards after the catch. If he can find that space in the defense, he has that speed and acceleration to turn short gains into chunk plays.
With the addition of head coach Mike McDaniel calling plays instead of the intriguing trio of offensive coordinators last season, there’s also a belief in better red zone efficiency. Waddle has a skill set that can be useful in close because he can get open quicker than most.
If Waddle takes advantage in those two areas, Yates is probably right, and the second-year wideout won’t see much drop off from last season.
