A few players to avoid for this season of fantasy football.
1. Beanie Wells, RB, Arizona Cardinals
Beanie Wells is entering his third season in the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals. Wells is finally tabbed to be the starter in Arizona after Tim Hightower was dealt to the Redskins and draft pick Ryan Williams was injured and is out for this season. Wells is often projected to be a sleeper, but has fulfilled his expectations yet. Last season in 13 games he got a measly 397 yards on 116 attempts, averaging only 3.4 yards per carry. He got only two touchdowns last season. Although Wells is now the starter, don’t count on him to produce much this season.
2. Shonn Greene, RB, New York Jets
While Shonn Greene is good, he isn’t great. Greene has been overhyped ever since he was a rookie, and still has not made a significant contribution for the Jets offense. Last season he was overshadowed by Ladainian Tomlinson and the year before that by Thomas Jones. Greene is listed as the starter, as he was last season, only to lose the job to Tomlinson. Greene has had some impressive stats, his 4.5 career yards per carry average is among the best in the league. Tomlinson is still an elite player and you should expect him (Tomlinson) to receive the majority of the workload, as he did last year.
3. Vernon Davis, TE, San Francisco 49ers
Vernon Davis is an extremely talented tight end. There’s no doubt about it. The real issue is the quarterback situation on the 49ers. The starting job has been awarded to Alex Smith, who has been inconsistent to say the least. His passer rating is low, at just over 80 and he threw nearly as many interceptions last season as touchdowns (14 TD, 10 INT) in the 10 games that he started last season. The backup job belongs to Colin Kaepernick, a rookie quarterback out of Nevada. Considering that Smith has only played all 11 games in a season once, it’s likely that the inexperienced Kaepernick will get some action at quarterback. An inexperienced or unreliable quarterback is not who you want to rely on for your star tight end to score fantasy points. If you are going for an elite tight end I recommend finding some other alternatives such as Jason Witten, Antonio Gates, or Dallas Clark.
4. Sidney Rice, WR, Seattle Seahawks
Here’s another guy with great talent, but the wrong quarterback. Rice has had only one season in which he performed well, in 2009 with the Vikings he hauled in over 1,300 yards from now retired quarterback (or so we think) Brett Favre. Last season was a bad one for Rice, as he had only 280 receiving yards. Now he’s been sent to Seattle where former Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson is tabbed to start. In Jackson’s best season in Minnesota (while both he and Rice were there) Rice only had 396 receiving yards. The inconsistency from both Rice and Jackson is a combination with little upside. Target a player like Austin Collie or Plaxico Burress instead of Sidney Rice.
5. Braylon Edwards, WR, San Francisco 49ers
A lot of people think Edwards is a stud wide receiver. I would tend to disagree, Edwards is typically overhyped and doesn’t produce much from a fantasy football standpoint. People are taking Edwards way too early, in my draft he was taken in the 4th round. Edwards isn’t nearly this valuable. When he has a good quarterback he poses a threat, but don’t waste your pick on Edwards until the 49ers find a viable starting quarterback.