Josh Freeman could fumble away your 2011 fantasy season.
You didn’t plan on it, but it happened. Maybe you pulled the trigger on Aaron Rodgers in the first round. Maybe you went WR-WR to start your draft. However you got there, you found yourself looking at LeGarrette Blount in the third round. “Hey, he was at the top of the board,” you rationalized. And there weren’t a receiver that stood out at all. In any case you needed a running back bad. So you picked Blount. Two months from now, you will look back at that moment as the one that sank your 2011 fantasy football season.
I don’t mean to pick on Blount here. He’s a fine talent and I pegged him as a sleeper last year. But you don’t want any Bucs on your 2011 fantasy roster. In short, this year’s team isn’t going to score a lot of points. Last year’s Bucs were not your typical 10-6 team. Nine of their ten wins were against the bottom seven teams in the league. To make things worse, many of those wins were squeakers. Against a much harder schedule, the Bucs will have a hard time repeating that success. They may grow into a good team in the future, but this year will be a step back in terms of wins and points.
So what does that mean for fantasy players? First, you don’t want LeGarrette Blount. You don’t want him in the third round and you certainly don’t want him for 17$.Schedule affects running backs more than any other position. Blount won’t be running in the redzone as often and he won’t be running late in games as often. If you want a running back in the third, you are better off dropping the draft board and just taking Felix Jones now.
Secondly, you don’t want Josh Freeman. He is currently going tenth in drafts and bringing in a whopping 10$ in auctions. This places him ahead of Eli Manning. That’s Eli Manning, who puts up top ten numbers every year or Josh Freeman who scored as many points as Manning last year, against the aforementioned cream cheese schedule. Freeman is a sexy pick because, like Michael Vick, he puts up points with his feet. But he did that last year, and those scampers across goalline will be few if the offense isn’t moving the ball.
Lastly, be wary of Mike Williams. He could very well be the one solid play in Tampa, but he is probably being overdrafted as well. As a solid target for redzone passes, he should retain enough value to be a solid fantasy starter. I don’t like him for 17$ but for 13$ or 14$, I probably would. He will likely be the Zach Miller of 2011, the one guy on his team that is startable. But for the rest of the Bucs, trade them while you still cam.
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Tags: 2011 fantasy busts, 2011 fantasy football, 2011 fantasy football rankings, josh freeman, legarrette blount, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
