Again, I still want to call this guy ‘Shonne Green’. This is gonna drive me nuts all year. It was announced that Shonn Greene will not be the third down running back heading into the 2012 fantasy football season. Now I was fully prepared for him to battle Tim Tebow for goal line supremacy but this was a wrinkle that rankles with me. What’s funny is when I googled him last week – and spelled his name right while I did it – every news snippet said ‘Shonn Greene preparing for a monster season’. And yet, the fourth little snippet I found basically contradicted it. Look, he’s the Jets RB1 but role may not be big enough to keep his current set up in my 2012 Fantasy Football Rankings. Not that he was a prolific receiver last year, but he did nearly double his receptions in 2011 from 2010 (30 vs 16). I assumed with the absence of LaDainian Tomlinson we’d see an increase. If those go in reverse, Shonn is going to have a hard time scratching and clawing his way into staying in my top 20 for running backs. The fall out of this will lead to either Joe McKnight or Bilal Powell getting 3rd down reps. Reports are they’re currently even at training camp but Bilal has more experience in pass protection. Notice we’re no longer talking fantasy football here? One of them might emerge as a useful PPR guy in deeper league settings but the Jets ranked 25th in total offense last year so we’d really have to be in a deep league to garner value out of this piece of the news. And with that, let us get on with a few more things buzzing around the headlines for fantasy football…wait, let’s jam on the breaks here. We still have open leagues in our 2012 Razzball Commenter leagues and someone has to win Razzball goodies. Why couldn’t it be you? So go back to that link, sign up and smile. Alright, now back to our regularly scheduled posting…
Peyton Hillis – Word on the street says Hillis came to camp in phenomenal shape and is rushing the ball with a sense of urgency and passion again. That is the type of news that gets me all hot and bothered in a fantasy football sort of way. I like Hillis coming into this season and for how cheap he’s going – average ADP according to Mock Draft Central has him at pick 99 – he’ll make up for all the other years I never had a Peyton on my team.
Eugene Amano – Yeah, I know you can’t draft this guy but he’s still relevant to your fantasy future, folks. Eugene – the starting center for the Tennessee Titans – suffered a torn tricep on Saturday and will miss the rest of the season. This is a team that has been a bit poor up the middle over the last few seasons, a big reason they signed former Seahawk/Viking Steve Hutchinson over the off-season. For people looking for a rebound year from Chris Johnson, this might sting a bit.
Hakeem Nicks – All reports say he’s still on target to start the season but my report says there’s a 75% chance of rain on your parade. Look, I mentioned earlier in the off-season I’m leery when a guy starts the season hurt while also looking at the same injury hampering one of Hakeem’s teammates the prior season longer than expected. Just realize if you’re drafting this guy where he’s currently going that you may have him on your bench to start the year. That wasn’t a threat it was a warning. Take it easy over there.
Andre Johnson – Unless twitter is lying to me, you should be reading this while AJ is finding his way back onto the field after injuring his groin last week. I know, I was just as surprised as you were to hear he was hurt I had a bit of an ‘accident’. Bumps and dings happen all the time in training camp but there are certain guys that make one of my eyebrows go slightly higher than the other when I get wind of theirs and Andre is one of them. I am not going to beat a dead horse here but I have him low in my wide receiver rankings because he can’t stay healthy. News like this doesn’t make me want to change my mind or my underwear…because I had a sarcastic ‘accident’. Look, I’m trying to tie things together here and you’re not helping with all this negativity! Overall, the Fantasy Pros CheatSheetWizard tells me over 60 fantasy analysts have him as the consensus 4th wide receiver off the board in a PPR league right now, ahead of much safer bets to play a full season such as Roddy White and Greg Jennings. Thankfully, I rearranged him on my personal cheat sheet so he’s where he should be for the risk you have to take with him.
Kevin Kolb – That’s not the type of play I expect to see at a HOF game. The only positive we can garner from it was he did complete 50% of his passes. Of course, to get that bad math we have to assume he meant to throw his first pass to the opposing team. If you don’t, then he was 1/4 and there were no positives as he left the game with a rib contusion. I seem to remember talking about Skelton taking over by the 4th or 5th week of the season. Sounds like I might be wrong. It might be much sooner. Not a good start for Cards fans.
