The Miami Dolphins were a hot mess from a coaching perspective this past season. It started with the firing of then head coach Joe Philbin only to see a position coach in the form of Dan Campbell replace him.
When that didn't work, Miami decided to fire offensive coordinator Bill Lazor.
When that didn't work, Miami finished a disappointing season with six wins.
Now that the entire landscape of Miami's coaching staff has changed, there is a whole heck of a lot to look at here from a personnel perspective.
In is an offensive-minded head coach in Adam Gase who worked wonders for Jay Cutler in Chicago last season. He's joined on the offensive side of the ball by former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen in the same role as well as former NFL pass catcher Shawn Jefferson as the team's wide receivers coach.
That is a completely different make up than what Miami had over the past couple seasons. Let's look at how this might impact fantasy performers on the squad heading into 2016.
Head Coach: Adam Gase
What Gase did for Cutler in Chicago last season was a near miracle. He turned an under-performing quarterback into someone the franchise might be able to rely on for the foreseeable future — an accomlishment in and of itself. More than that, Gase became one of the hottest head coaching candidates in recent history.
So it was a bit of a surprise that he accepted Miami's job relatively early in the process — a job that wasn't previously seen as too attractive. With Cutler coming off a career-best season that saw him complete 64.4 percent of his passes with 21 touchdowns compared to 11 interceptions, Miami is hoping Gase can work his same magic with Ryan Tannehill in South Beach.
After all, Tannehill did have a pretty uneven fourth season in the NFL in 2015. His completion percentage and quarterback rating both dropped from what was a career-best campaign in 2014. That led to Miami finishing 27th in scoring compared to 11th the previous year.
More than Tannehill, Gase's fantasy impact could be at wide receiver where the Dolphins have two solid young players in Jarvis Landry and DeVante Parker.
Landry finished the 2015 campaign ranked in the top five of the NFL in receptions with 110, but only averaged 10.5 yards per catch while scoring four touchdowns. With more of a vertical passing game under Gase than what we saw in 2015, the expectation here has to be that Landry will put up better fantasy numbers.
Parker is the true outlier in every sense of the word. Recovering from a post-draft surgery on his foot, the rookie ended up starting just four games — going for 26 reeptions, 494 yards and three scores. We can also expect much bigger numbers from him as a sophomore.
As it relates to the running back position, we are going to have ot take a wait-and-see approach. Lamar Miller is set to become a free agent and is unlikely to return. If he does bolt south beach, Jay Ajayi becomes Miami's potential starter. He put up 277 total yards on 56 targets as a rookie. Though, Gase offenses usually tend to focus on receiving from the backfiled — something the Boise State product has never really been comfortable with. This seems to be an indication that Miami might look externally for a starting running back.
Offensive Coordinator: Clyde Christensen
A coaching life, Christenson has two decades of experience as an assistant in the NFL. His latest role was as the Colts quarterbacks coach after three seasons as the team's offensive coordinator. He has experience coaching quarterbacks, tight ends and wide receivers.
While Christensen won't necessarily have a bulk of the play-calling duties in Miami, he will be in Gase's ear. It's a nice thing to have this type of experience as an assistant, though there really isn't much to look at from a fantasy perspective.