Fantasy Football: Player Profile Lamar Miller
Fantasy football is all about playing the right players at the right time. Decision making is one of the biggest factors of being successful in fantasy football and Lamar Miller could make that decision making a little bit easier. One thing that fantasy owners are constantly searching for is favorable match ups. There are players like Aaron Rodgers or Antonio Brown that will be included in lineups every week regardless of who they’re playing. If you end up taking Lamar Miller this year, you may be rewarded with some favorable match ups early in the season.
The Miami Dolphins have got to be salivating at their first few games. They don’t play a playoff team until late October, which will be the New England Patriots on the 29th. Who do they play that looks so enticing then? Their first six games look like this: Week 1 at Washington (finished 12th in rushing defense). Week 2 at Jacksonville (finished 27th in rushing defense). Week 3 vs. Buffalo (finished 11th in rushing defense). Week 4 vs. New York Jets (finished 5th in rushing defense). Week 5 is a bye week. Week 6 at Tennessee (finished 31st in rushing defense). Week 7 vs. Houston (finished 10th in rushing defense). Even with some of these teams finishing close to the top ten, I believe they will be ahead late in the majority of these games and will be running the ball to close them out. The Jets finished the highest in rushing defense among these teams and Miller rushed for 237 yards and two touchdowns against them. In their final game against the Jets, Miller had 178 yards and a touchdown, so he can play well against some of the toughest defenses.
The downside to Lamar Miller is the handful of games where he only gets 40-60 yards without any touchdowns. Miami doesn’t exactly have the best offensive line either, they allowed 46 sacks which was tenth worst in the league. He also doesn’t score a lot of touchdowns, he had only eight last year. These are some areas he will have to clean up to be considered an every week back.
There is a lot of upside with Miller. Last year he was called upon 55 percent of time of the teams 399 rushing attempts. His yards per carry last year wasn’t bad either, on his 216 carries he averaged 5.1 yards per carry. He also finished tenth in total rushing yards with 1,099. He does quite a bit with a mediocre offensive line. I have him at No.15 among running backs right now, but the potential is there for him to be a top ten back.
Lamar Miller is going to be a top 15 back, with the potential to be a top ten rusher. He’ll probably be a RB2 in most leagues if not, a very strong FLEX player. I am hoping to find him around the bottom of the second round and I wouldn’t blame anyone for taking him early in the second, based on his potential to be a top ten back. I pointed out the Dolphins easy schedule to start off the season and in these games he should put up great numbers, so don’t be surprised in the second half of the year if and when his numbers drop off. My final verdict on Miller, draft him, you may be in for a pleasant surprise this year.
