The “For Real?” Files: DeVante Parker

The premise for this series is simple: we want to know who is in the Miami Dolphins’ “young nucleus”. Today, we’ll vote on DeVante Parker.

And you might be surprised, but I’m not going to break down tape or share stats in this series. YOU watched the games just like I did, so I don’t necessarily care if your perception derives from a hard look at the metrics and data or you simply have a feeling about the guy (although I’d like to hear about your take in the Comments Section).

This is about as “old” of a player that we’ll talk about in this series: DeVante Parker is heading into his 4th year in the league, with the potential for a 5th year option looming.

The Dolphins WR group has more question marks than that guy on infomercials about 10 years ago trying to teach you about free government money.

Will Jarvis Landry even be on the team? What do we have in Leonte Carroo, Isaiah Ford, and Jakeem Grant? Kenny Stills would be the only reliable WR we can trust, and even then, Kenny’s game can be inconsistent as well.

Enter DeVante Parker.

If you operate under the old adage that it takes 3 years for an NFL WR to fully develop, then what exactly did we see last year? The offense was a mess, plenty of blame to go around, don’t get me wrong. But man, I figured if any WR benefitted from Jay Cutler’s presence the most, it would be to the one “jump guy” we have. That was the one proven QB-WR chemistry thing that Cutler had in his teams a la Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery.

We simply didn’t see what we wanted to see from Parker and it was extremely disappointing. The injuries are a nuisance: they hold him out of games on occasion, but more importantly, they seem like a built-in excuse to justify the games of mediocre tape.

At the same time, a contract year is a salient motivational factor in all of this, and it wouldn’t shock me if DeVante plays at a high level and become more reliable. The question is more if it’ll be too little-too late or not.

Installment #1: Xavien Howard, 91% Yes, 4% No, 5% I’m stupid.

Installment #2: Kenyan Drake, 93% Yes, 4% No, 3% I’m stupid.

Installment #3: Laremy Tunsil, 83% Yes, 14% No, 3% I’m stupid.

Installment #4: Isaac Asiata, 48% Yes, 41% No, 11% I’m stupid.

The question remains: is DeVante Parker for real? Is this a member of the “young nucleus”?