Top 3 Fantasy Football Busts and Surprises

Fantasy Football writer Dave Seronick takes a look at his Top 3 Biggest Busts and Surprises thus far in the 2011 NFL season.

Biggest Busts:

3. A pair of WRs – DeSean Jackson and Reggie Wayne.  Let’s start with Wayne, who coming into this season had seven consecutive seasons of 1,000+ receiving yards and at least five TDs.  Albeit, there was no Manning this season and his quarterbacks have been somewhat atrocious.  However, I do not care when you are Reggie Wayne I expect way, way more from you.  At this point, Wayne ranks as the 33rd overall WR with only two TDs and 707 yards receiving.

Jackson, currently tied with Wayne at 33rd, entered this season with back-to-back seasons with least 6 TD.  This season, Jackson has less than 700 yards and only two TDs.  Only three times this season has Jackson scored more than 10 points in a game.  He is just dropping more passes and not as electrifying as he has been in previous seasons.

2. DeAngelo Williams: Prior to last season, Williams had back-to-back 1,000 rushing yards with 25 combined rushing TDs.  Despite being healthy and having a phenomenal quarterback, Williams has laid a complete egg.  Thirteen weeks in, Williams has just over 500 rushing yards and three TDs, good enough for 34th overall RB.  He is behind guys like DeMarco Murray, Michael Bush, and Ben Tate.

1. Chris Johnson:  I am not impressed with his performances over the past month.  I honestly do not care if he looks like the “old” Chris Johnson, it should have been this way all season long.  The No. 2 overall ranked player coming into this year’s draft, until a month ago was not even relevant in fantasy football.  In many leagues he got benched, and for good reason.  Many teams and owners suffered severely due to his lackluster performances.  Now, late in the season, he decides to somewhat turn it on, too little too late.  He is on his way to career lows in rushing yards, TDs, and yards per carry.

Top Surprises:

3. Victor Cruz:  Cruz, due to injury, did little during his rookie year, and it showed during the draft.  Not drafted by a single team, Cruz was a free agent in every ESPN league.  After getting his chance to shine in third week of the season (110 yards and two TDs), Cruz’s ownership grew by 30 percent.  Backing up his strong performance in the third week, Cruz quickly rose to the top of the fantasy wide receiver, where he is currently ranked third.  In addition to his high fantasy ranking, Cruz is also ranked fourth in the NFL in yards (1,076) and receiving yards a game.

2. It’s a tie, Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski.  These two tight ends are absolutely killing it this year.  So far this season Gronk has five games in which he has scored over 20 points.  In fact, as a tight end, Gronkowski currently ranks as the 15th overall fantasy scorer.   As far as his NFL ranks are concerned, he seventh in the NFL is receptions (65), ninth in yards (928) and leads the league in touchdowns with 13.  We all knew he was good last season when he caught 10 TDs passes, but this season could be a record breaker for tight end.

Entering his second season, and even though he has Brees throwing to him, nobody really knew who Graham was, as his average draft selection was in the 10th and 11th rounds.    Throughout Graham’s exceptional season, he has only gone under double-digit fantasy points four times.  He currently is second in the NFL in receptions (75) and fifth overall in yards (1,046) TDs (8) and yards a game (87.2).

1. Cam Newton:  Is there even any debating this?  Everybody knew Newton was a special talent entering the league.  As I said before, and will say again, nobody knew he was going to be THIS good.  There is no real need to explain, as his stats speak for themselves. He’s the second overall quarterback. He ha scored over 20 points eight times and doesn’t have a single-digit game this season.

Video courtesy of Youtube

To say this fantasy season was surprising would be an understatement.  I can only wait to see what next season brings.  Good luck in the playoffs and I will see you next week.