Well here was the Monday Night Football game everyone no doubt had circled on their calendars this season. Truly one of the few games where Gruden’s ‘this guy/that guy’ analysis fits perfectly since we don’t really know who this or that guy is any better than he does. I had a better joke to lead this paragraph off with but felt starting and ending a paragraph with ‘The Jets’ would leave many wanting. But outside my sarcastic comments, there was still fantasy relevance to be had…well, there was very little to be had but we write about fantasy football so we feel obliged to dig and find some and what we came up with was Jake Locker. As I was doing rankings for QBs, I left him out of my top 20 QBs for 2012 but did decide to blurb on him as he was on everyone’s radar in 2011 and was being tabbed as a sleeper in 2012, especially for 2 QB leagues. Jake was the big armed, big bodied QB of the future for Tennessee and 2012 was going to be his year to showcase his skills. Well, a shoulder issue derailed him week 4 and he didn’t return until week 10 and then it took a couple of weeks to shake the rust off. Peering under the hood that is the Monday night spotlight game, what I saw was a very raw athlete and someone who doesn’t deserve a grade for his 2012 season, whether in his favor or punitive. Against a tough Jets secondary, Locker finished the night with a respectable line, completing 13/22 pass attempts for 149 yards without any touchdowns but, more importantly, no interceptions. Of course, this is not what made people interested in Jake coming into the year. Jake also finished the night with 43 rushing yards on 7 attempts with the game winning touchdown. As we all know, quarterbacks with great legs get fantasy owners hot and bothered. If you don’t believe me, just ask yourself how many times we’ve talked about Tim Tebow this year…you know, the guy with only 126 total yards on the season coming into the game. Legs change leagues like Tebow and Cam Newton did last year and Robert Griffin, III is doing this year. So the fever about Locker for that reason is understandable but some reality needs to get tossed into your fantasy, folks. Unless Locker can figure out how to cure inaccuracy issues and how to – good GAWD man – slide rather than hurdle himself into a defensive player head first, Locker’s chance at success ROS and beyond is going to be extremely hampered by inconsistency and leaving himself open to pointless injury and incessant ‘Hurt Locker’ puns. In other Monday Night Football news for 2012 fantasy football…
Please, blog, may I have some more?