It’s not often you can be a complete fanatic about your team and have your standom work out flawlessly with the results on the field. Through two weeks, no amount of hype from Dolphins fans about this year’s passing game has proven to be out of line.
The Baltimore Ravens’ secondary was in shambles last season from a myriad of injuries. Heading into this past week’s matchup against the Dolphins, you would think that Ravens’ unit was in the same scenario. They were down recent signing Kyle Fuller, and Marcus Peters returned for just his first game back from tearing his ACL last September. But, you wouldn’t expect them to give up 469 yards and six touchdowns to Tua Tagovailoa.
Yes, the Jaylen Waddle – Tyreek Hill duo is electric on paper, but there were still question marks about how the two would coexist, and if Tua had the ability to optimize both of their talents. Although Hill overexaggerated a bit, and many in the general public underexaggerated by a lot, the signs were there that Tua could handle the pressure.
Tyreek’s 11-190-2 line on 13 targets makes it hard to process that there was still room for Waddle to produce his own line of 11-171-2 on nineteen targets, making them the two highest-scoring PPR wide receivers for the week. That’s 42.0 and 40.1 PPR points, respectively.
Last year, 16.1 PPR points per game were good enough to break a receiver into WR1 territory. Not only did Hill and Waddle demolish that mark in Week 2, but they both hit that mark in Week 1 versus the Patriots.
What’s most notable about the Patriots’ game is that even though Miami had a 17-0 lead at halftime, they still favored the pass in the second half, running 16 pass plays to 12 runs.
Tagovailoa and Miami’s electric receiving duo show no signs of being unable to produce top-12 fantasy seasons for both receivers. Both wide receivers can coexist, harvest targets, have a quarterback that can connect on those targets, and most notably, are in a scheme that so far is pass-heavy, no matter the game script.
“It was like (McDaniel) was out there playing Madden,” Hill said after the Ravens’ game. “He was just lining us up quick. He was just like, ‘Tua, just get it to the guys that can space create.’ That’s what we was able to do, stretch the ball down the field, get the ball down to Mike Gesicki, get Chase (Edmonds) involved, get Raheem (Mostert) involved. Really everyone was involved today.”
At this rate, Cheetah and the Penguin might each be top-6 fantasy receivers, locked-in WR1 anchors, in every fantasy lineup.
Hopefully Hill’s arrival in Miami didn’t persuade you to sell high on either receiver during the offseason or drop very far (if at all) in your redraft rankings. If you have them, enjoy the ride, and keep up as The Wolf updates his Big Board and Rankings and his Weekly Fantasy Rankings & Tiers, to see where the two stack up each week.
