Michael Turner’s Plummeting Fantasy Stock
At a glance, Atlanta Falcons running back Michael Turner had a pretty good year in 2011. However, when you dig deeper into his numbers you notice a concerning trend with him – a trend that should knock him down fantasy football draft boards.
With 1,340 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns last year, 2011 was one of Turner’s most successful seasons during his eight-year NFL career. But don’t let those numbers fool you, Turner was inconsistent last season, especially late in the year. Turner had a stretch at the end of the season where he struggled. From Weeks 12 to 16, Turner rushed for just 280 yards, which is an average of 56 yards per game. He also averaged fewer than four yards per carry and scored just one touchdown during that span.
Fantasy Factor: Second Receivers With Huge Value
In today’s NFL, it’s sometimes hard to differentiate between a team’s number one wide receiver and their number two guy. While depth charts set the order, important statistics such as targets, receptions, yards and touchdowns can tell a different story.
Here are four WR2s that have more fantasy value than the guy ahead of him on the depth chart.
Reality Check: Fantasy Football Rookie Production
Fantasy Football owners were flipping their lid at what an amazing late round steal Newton turned out to be, as most first round quarterbacks do zero to little damage their first year. The added bonus of rushing yards and rushing TD’s made last year’s first overall pick a lot more appleaing, but for the most part, nobody was selling the farm to get him.
3 Cone Drill: The Fantasy Sleeper Stat.
The NFL combine is the meat market of the NFL. Speed, size, and strength are all recorded to find the top prospects of the future. Fans and the media fixate on the best numbers and can be quite critical of poor 40 yard dash results. Instantly a 4.35 running back seems so much more appealing than a player who ran a 4.55.
But is the two tenths of a second the difference between a bust and NFL stardom? Is the 40 yard dash really the end-all be-all of the NFL?
Of course not.
For starters the difference between two tenths of a second is not something one can measure without a stopwatch. The fact that players are running without pads and start in a sprinter’s stance is also not relevant to the next level. Actually, if I’m going to go one step further, how often are these future millionaire athletes going to be running in a dead straight line? NFL running backs rarely have a clear cut straight path to the endzone without making some sort of cut, juke, or spin. Sure once the ball carrier breaks the first wave of defenders his odds increase to take it the distance, but even then he has to worry about ball hawking safeties
AFC Goal Line Gossip – Week 12
AFC Goal Line Gossip – Week 12
