The Miami Dolphins haven’t meant to turn Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle into the NFL’s most expensive perimeter blockers in 2024.
But they’re also not about to have Tua Tagovailoa force them the ball when there are other, more open options.
If there’s ever a week, however, for the Dolphins’ two deep threats to bust out, this is it. Miami’s Week 10 opponents, the Los Angeles Rams, allow the third-most yards per pass attempt (7.8).
Can Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle Snap Drought?
That would certainly be a welcome development for fantasy managers who were hoping for a repeat of 2024, when Hill and Waddle combined for 2,813 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns.
Miami’s dynamic duo won’t come close to that in 2024. Both are on pace for their lowest statistical output since their rookie years. They simply haven’t had the opportunities of seasons past. After combining for 275 targets in 2023, they have 94 through eight games this season.
Hill’s eight yards per target is the third-lowest of his career; 55.8 yards per game is his lowest since his rookie year. While his average depth of target (12.7 yards) is actually higher than in 2023, he simply hasn’t had the breakaway opportunities of a year ago.
Neither Hill nor Waddle — whose 4.8 targets-per-game average is by far the lowest of his career — have a catch longer than 30 yards since the season opener.
So what’s going on? Has Mike McDaniel just taken the deep ball out of Miami’s offense?
Obviously not — at least not intentionally.
“Defenses have really taken notice of those explosive plays and they’ve tried to prevent them by basically doubling them,” McDaniel said Thursday. “As a result, it’s forced a lot of the offense to get better. It’s forced Tua to get on the same page with a lot of other eligibles and it’s forced our offensive line to block and our runners to run and Tyreek to run block a little bit.
“You do that and you have to understand that in team football, if you’re getting double teamed, there’s, there’s a teammate of yours that stands for a lot of reasons for success.”
Those teammates are De’Von Achane (who leads the Dolphins with 37 catches and three receiving touchdowns) and Jonnu Smith (30 catches for 302 yards and a score).
The Dolphins had just three players with 28 or more catches in all of 2023. They already have four in 2024.
Miami Dolphins Need To Air It Out
Still, the Dolphins’ most dangerous play has been and will continue to be, “Tyreek, go deep.”
And it’s not a coincidence that they’ve gone 1-6 in their seven games since that explosive season-opening win over the Jaguars.
“We just run whatever is called,” said Tagovailoa, who in 2024 is at career bests in completion percentage (72.7) but career lows in intended air yards per pass attempt (5.8), completed air yards (CAY) per completion (3.6), and CAY per attempt (2.6).
“If Mike calls for a shot play and we check it down, you know, that’s just what the play entails for us to do. So it’s not like we haven’t been trying to stretch the ball down the field. That’s just what the defenses have been showing us.”