When it comes to having an electrifying offense in the NFL in this day and age, it is almost a requirement to have multiple wide outs with monster playmaking ability. Without a doubt, this thought was at the forefront of the minds in the main office of the Atlanta Falcons in the 2011 Draft when they paid a high price to move up and select Julio Jones with the 6th overall pick. The move paid off big with Jones setting Franchise records for a rookie in both receiving yards and touchdowns in a season while still only playing in 13 games.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Monthly Archives: May 2012
We have a real treat for you faithful Fantasy Football readers here at Razzball. We have started a new writing battle series to challenge you, the reader, to pick which side of the fantasy football spectrum you land on. We are going to provide you with two thorough articles on two different players and you will be asked to pick which side of the argument you will land on. There is no wrong answer except for not voting at all. Keep in mind this poll was inspired by a movie with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage. That means overactingwriting is not only expected but actually encouraged. Vote accordingly. This week’s poll is between Roddy White and Julio Jones. Enjoy!
Most fantasy owners have been burned by a sleeper pick or two at some point. That is why a lot of people reading this article are starting to feel a lot of anxiety and maybe even a sharp pain in their temple. James Starks was a popular sleeper pick in 2011 fantasy football leagues after an epic performance in the 2010 Green Bay Packers playoff run. Fantasy owners may have passed up guys like Fred Jackson, Willis McGahee, and Beanie Wells to draft Starks. Obviously that did not work out so well since Starks rushed for only 578 yards and 1 touchdown.
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As I sit here and ponder the upcoming season’s rankings for wide receivers, I start to look at the off-season moves of these guys and wonder what type of effect will be had on them by the quarterback they’re going to play catch with. You see, just because you have a talented wide receiver like Vincent Jackson moving to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers doesn’t mean his stat line will follow him. A dude has gotta get him the ball for him to be successful y’all. If you don’t believe me, just ask Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers back in 2009 and 2010. With that thought in mind, I thought I’d dig up some numbers on quarterbacks and their amount of down field pass attempts (which is a pass that is thrown for over 15 yards for this evaluation) as a percentage of their overall attempts. Friends, what you find here is shocking and appalling and may forever scar your mind…Tim Tebow led the league last year with a whopping 33.5% of his attempts sailing out of bounds going for over 15 yards. Of course, he completed just 46.3% of his passes so we know they didn’t find their target all that often. I think we can safely say he was throwing (takes off sunglasses) a lot of hail marys (YEAAAAAAHHHH!). Now one stat doesn’t mean much since there can be so many variables as to why it is low or high. However, it’s a good starting point to use for evaluating the fantasy relevance or irrelevance of the wide receivers they have as well as the quarterbacks themselves. With that said, let the fantasy football sleuthing begin!
Hakeem Nicks fractured his fifth metatarsal in his right foot on Thursday while trying to learn the salsa dance from Victor Cruz, effectively putting his fantasy relevance this year into serious doubt. Though the timetable put out by the physician says 12 weeks, it was noted that team mate Prince Amukamara had the same injury last year and didn’t even practice until 15 weeks later. On one hand, that puts Hakeem on track to start the season right on time. On the other hand, did ya NOT see how bad some football players were with a shortened training camp last year? I’d be willing to speculate on Hakeem at the right price in drafts this year but something tells me he’ll be too rich for my blood when they start going live. It’s one thing to fully heal and practice it’s another thing to get your timing down. Plus, it’s his foot. I don’t know about you, but in order for me to reach my full potential vertical (I can clear an iPhone box with a strenuous bound), I have to use my feet to do it. Cuts get dicey like your name was ginsu when your foot doesn’t plant like it should. Here’s my strategy on Hakeem and feel free to follow it if you’d like since, well, you come to this site for information like this. Let someone else draft him. You’re going to get enough of your headache from your runningback tandems most likely, you don’t need full on migraines. This news is both a boon and a rub for Cruz owners. Though he’s going to see increased targets, he’s also going to be the focus early in the season by opposing defenses. I already felt he was going to regress this year and this sure doesn’t change my mind. Overall, I feel this simply muddies the WR waters in NYG. There’s the rookie of interest in this story – Rueben Randle – but I wonder if Ramses Barden gets a shot first. Domenik Hixon and his injury history doesn’t make me interested at all. Obviously, we’ll need to see how training camp unfolds but whatever happens, if Eli Manning doesn’t get into a groove with one of them, he might start having some emotional issues. In other fantasy football news…
Kellen Winslow - Traded to a team that doesn’t throw to their TE’s. Fantasy Football analysis of the day: ‘this is not good for Winslow’s 2012 fantasy value’. Couple that with the fact he has Zach Miller competing for targets and this may be the first time in my life that I don’t want to touch a good tight end.
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For yet another season, Razzball will be interviewing local NFL beat writers for some in-depth actual football knowledge to sway some insight in our fantasy football knowledge. Keep your eye out for an interview for every NFL team through the summer and check out each one on the “2012 Fantasy Football Team Previews” link. Our first installment comes courteous of Stephanie Stradley who writes for a prominent Houston Texans blog:
1. Arian Foster persevered after the infamous “anti-awesome white stuff” tweet, and even after missing time, was one of the best fantasy running backs in 2012. He is now the clear number one selection in 2012 fantasy football. Do you have any concerns regarding his workload the past few seasons? And do you think we see about the same workload for Ben Tate spelling Foster if both backs stay healthy?
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Alright, stop me if you’ve heard this one before: ‘All Chris Carter does is catch touchdowns’. Alright so you have, but how about ‘All Matt Forte does is score touchdowns’? No, that would be news to you, wouldn’t it? That’s because in 60 games and with a total of 1237 career rushing and receiving touches, Forte has 30 TDs. So he has averaged a touchdown every other game, you’d say, but his career line goes a little more like this: 12/4/9/4. Now that’s not a badly formatted date, that’s his total touchdowns from each season since 2008. As anyone can tell you, it’s hard to predict touchdowns but there’s one thing you can predict besides the next M.
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For some reason, Jay Cutler is concerned about his offensive line this season. I don’t know why that could be; it has been quite an offensive group since he’s been in Chicago. Starting from 2009, the Chicago Bears have given up 110 sacks. That would give any man cold feet and I’m sure Kristen Cavallari can attest. There’s a difference between a running quarterback like Cam Newton and a running scared quarterback like Cutler, namely the urine stains the Bears facilities has to wash out after each game. Though I’m sure having Brandon Marshall as the number one receiver over Roy Williams will help, he still needs longer than one second to pass the ball. Is it any wonder Cutler has been using animal therapy to deal with his fears? I’m not gonna get excited about Cutler for fantasy purposes this year. In fact, I bite my thumb at the idea of it. In other news-like information:
Vince Young – Signed with dream team 2.0 last Friday – also known as ‘whatever team will pay him to still play’ – joining the Buffalo Bills to be the backup for Ryan Fitzpatrick. This move might actually have fantasy relevance given Ryan’s late-season swoon after signing his extension during the 2011 season. Of course, only bye week and two quarterback league relevance but that counts right?
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It’s May isn’t it? Something like four months until football starts? But it’s never too early to see how the chips are falling, albeit really early chips. Like when Erik Estrada wasn’t as famous.
I was hoping for some specific guys early on, and all my hopes were crushed. The rankings this year are going to vary dramatically based on several position battles, free agent moves, rookies etc. Which is par for the course, but it isn’t usually as dramatic in the first few rounds. The top of the rankings are going to get shaken up more than a Bond Martini.
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Razzball Nation! The 2012 Fantasy Season is approaching! It’s great to be back and never too early to start thinking about how to field your best squad.
What better way to start planning for your upcoming drafts than to think about sleepers. And just like your friendly proctologist, I’m going to start with the Tight End.
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