The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Miami Dolphins players heading into their matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers to help you craft a winning lineup.
Tua Tagovailoa, QB
In his first game post-Tyreek Hill injury, Tua Tagovailoa was … well, Tua Tagovailoa.
He completed three-quarters of his passes and connected on three touchdown passes, his first game with that many scores in more than 10 months. It was his fourth straight game with multiple TD tosses, but more interesting to me was the season-high average depth of throw.
READ MORE: Soppe’s Week 6 Fantasy Football Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em: Analysis for Every Player in Every Game
We know that Tagovailoa’s rushing numbers won’t ever be there, and that makes the downfield passing attack more critical for him than for most.
While I’m encouraged by the idea, I’m concerned about just how sticky it is when Darren Waller is your secondary deep threat. Sam Darnold (at JAX) and Bryce Young (vs. DAL) are two pocket-oriented passers that I’d much rather roll the dice on this week.
De’Von Achane, RB
The Dolphins had a 17-0 lead over one of the league’s worst teams.
What more could we possibly ask for?
De’Von Achane is the clear RB1 in this offense, and a game script like that should have us dancing in the streets, but even a nice run out only saw him carry the rock 10 times for 16 yards.
He got home by catching six of seven targets for 30 yards and a touchdown, but the limited rushing ceiling is concerning. We can’t complain with 6+ catches in each of Miami’s past three losses and three scores in the passing game, but with just one game over 62 rushing yards, he needs almost to be a full-time receiver to post top 10 numbers at the position.
MORE: Free Fantasy Start/Sit Lineup Optimizer
Maybe he can be 80% of Christian McCaffrey, especially after the Hill loss, but that worries me. If you have Achane, you’re playing him every single week, and you should be. I’m just more uneasy about his ability to sustain RB1 production than some of the other backs in this range of the rankings.
Ollie Gordon II, RB
If you were still hoping Ollie Gordon would work into a role with standalone value, last week should have killed those hopes.
The rookie played just 26.4% of the snaps in a game where the ‘Fins jumped out to a lead against a team struggling at similar levels. Through five weeks, Gordon has run 21 times for 58 yards and has shown minimal promise.
He’s considered a bruiser (zero or fewer receiving yards in four of five games), and for that skill set to be interesting in our game, he has to be heavily featured. At this point, I’m not positive that Gordon would be a top 20 RB even if Achane were out of the mix, and that puts him squarely on the chopping block should you run into depth concerns.
Jaylen Waddle, WR
Jaylen Waddle paid off our optimism in the first week of this post-Hill world, and that’s great to see, though I would caution against assuming that he’s now an unquestioned top 15 player the rest of the way.
MORE: Free Fantasy Waiver Wire Tool
The long touchdown accounted for 50.4% of his points on Sunday in a picture-perfect matchup where 36 of Miami’s 50 plays were passes. The big play obviously counts, but it’s not exactly Waddle’s calling card, and those splash plays are going to be more and more challenging to come by as defenses gather data on how this offense is adjusting to life without their WR1.
And then there’s the matchup: I understand that the league prohibits you from playing the Panthers 17 times a year.
Like everyone else, I was encouraged over the weekend (26.5% target share and 43% of Miami’s receiving yards), but I’m going to stop assuming that the usage is sustainable or that it means 23 PPR points on a regular basis.
Tyreek Hill, WR
Just a reminder that Hill’s season is over and that there is no risk from moving on from him in redraft formats.
News surfaced last week that Drew Rosenhaus has Week 1, 2026, as a “realistic goal” for his client, but I’d take that news for what it is: an optimistic view from someone financially invested in this situation.
READ MORE: What Happened to Tyreek Hill? Revisiting the Dolphins Star’s Gruesome Injury and When He’ll Return
The early medical reports sound relatively good (no nerve damage), but dynasty managers are wise to take a wait-and-see approach with this devastating injury.
Darren Waller, TE
Evan Engram and Jonnu Smith are on the list of the tight ends who have scored fewer fantasy points than Waller this season, while Daniel Bellinger and Charlie Kolar have run more routes than the one-time elite TE and one-time rapper.
The touchdowns result in the fantasy spikes, but a 34-yard seam route and a first-quarter fourth-down reception point to the Dolphins really wanting Waller to be a thing.
I’m getting there.
MORE: Fantasy Football Trade Analyzer
He looks spry, and this is a great spot: a bad team that lacks stabilized target distribution patterns with Hill done for the season. After playing just 25.4% of the offensive snaps in the Week 4 win over the Jets, Waller posted a 60.4% snap share in Carolina and hasn’t been asked to block a single time this year.
Waller is my TE12. Maybe that’s more of a positional thing than a Waller thing, but at the tight end, I don’t mind riding a hot hand like this, where there is usage to chase and an athletic profile in hand.
