I wonder how many NFL players pick up the latest fantasy magazine or search for themselves online? Probably more than you think.
“Lets see, last year ESPN had me ranked in the mid-teens, now I’m in the 40′s?”, “This website just called me a Bust, and this other one used the word douchebag”. I imagine the NFL ego can handle the criticism of these comments, while lying around in their monster homes with an abundant pool of money, but I digress.
The sting of a bad fantasy season can torpedo a players’ value overnight. It’s rare someone goes out on a limb and says it was just an off-year, more likely the guy becomes the weird kid in high school that no one wants to sit next to at lunch.
The phrase “what have you done for me lately” is something I can’t help but throw around whenever these names are used. So while you’re all ready to quickly throw these five players under the bus, I’m going to try to see the good in such terrible 2009 fantasy seasons.
5) QB Matt Hasselbeck
It seems Matt Hasselbeck peaked in 2008. The Seattle QB threw for 28 TD’s and a hair shy of 4000 yards that season, but hasn’t been the same since. Injuries have slowed this Chunky Soup spokesperson to a bowl of mush, and fantasy owners hate him for it.
The Seahawks new coaching staff have already found Hasselbeck’s eventual replacement, even if this year’s training camp proves that at 35 he can still lead the team. Gridiron Experts has Hasselbeck ranked 28th on the list of QB’s, one step up from Tebow, who’s not even starting. Regardless of age and surrounding talent, Hasselbeck is a confident quarterback who can sling the rock. He goes through his progressions like a pro, and can make big plays for big yardage.
When I put in my two cents for the rankings, I had him above the “Matt Moore’s” and “David Garrard’s” of the league, and can honestly say I’d draft him as my go-to bye week replacement. Late round QB’s tend to be dead weight on fantasy teams without injuries, but my prediction for Hasselbeck is a surprising bounce back year in the Pete Carrol offense.
4) RB Brandon Jacobs
Going from playing 13 games in 2008 (in which the 6’4″ RB ran for 100o+ yards and 15 TD’s) to playing more games and getting only a 3rd of the scores…what happened? Jacobs also had back to back seasons with 5.o yard per carry averages before 2009, when he dropped to only 3.7 yards per play.
Stats, stats, blah, blah; Brandon Jacobs (and the G-Men) played like crap last year. You know it, I know it, and the New York Giants know it. So why can’t he bounce back from an awful season?
His name is Ahmad Bradshaw.
Bradshaw will have every opportunity to steal carries this season, which is lowering Jacobs stock on everyone’s fantasy board. But at 5’9″ and under 200 lbs. Bradshaw will not hear his number called on first and goal. I see less carries for Jacobs in 2010, but actually view that as a good …Continue reading 5 NFL Players In Everyone’s Fantasy Doghouse
Dez Bryant – This guy’s career is already off to one peculiar start, even for a receiver. He missed his entire senior season in Stillwater, a GM asked him if his mother was a hooker, he signed before every other first round pick only to raise a stink about the tamest hazing ritual we’ve ever heard, and as a result things are supposed to be tense between him and Roy Williams. Still, he was one of the more talented players in the draft, and any discussion of him being a “head case” seemed completely manufactured by uptight, overly-conservative NFL suits. It’s almost certain he’ll be under-estimated in fantasy drafts.
