With a season-ending injury to New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington, there’s been a lot of chatter about the quarterback position in fantasy football.
Although, I’m not sure why.
If you were depending on Pennington for fantasy success this season, then you were probably out of luck already. But Pennington’s early exit from the 2005 NFL season, and his dismal performance in his short time on the field, underscores a disturbing trend that more and more fantasy players are discovering as the season progresses.
It’s a funny thing about football: The wide receiver requires that someone – usually the quarterback – have the ability to pass the ball to him.
Pennington was one of several quarterbacks having early season troubles and his receivers, namely the generally solid fantasy producer Laveranues Coles, were suffering because of it.
Looking around the league, you’ll see that even marquee names such as Indianapolis’ Marvin Harrison, New Orleans’ Joe Horn and Houston’s Andre Johnson are suffering the same fate.
Clearly, you can’t bench Harrison, Horn, Johnson or Gonzalez, but you can use their experiences and look further down the depth charts around the league to decide who you should and shouldn’t be looking to pick up, and who you should bench.
Coles is at the top of that list, and he’s joined by many others, including every wide receiver who wears a Buffalo Bills jersey.
Buffalo could have been home to a nice little secret for fantasy owners this season as there were some soft-spoken expectations from Lee Evans, and some thought that there was still at least another decent season left for Eric Moulds.
But with QB J.P. Losman failing to top 170 passing yards in a game – and getting progressively worse since Week 1 – there isn’t a lot of hope for the receivers there.
Brett Favre has been another disappointment thus far and he’s bringing the Packers’ wide receivers down with him. The opening-week injury to WR Javon Walker opened the door for Donald Driver to return to “impact” status and, with the exception of Week 2 against the suspect Browns defense, he hasn’t been given much of a chance.
Steve McNair, another once-great fantasy quarterback, is fizzling and keeping even his top target, WR Drew Bennett, out of fantasy starting lineups.
On the flip side, a surprisingly hot quarterback can catapult wide receivers into fantasy starting spots, and nowhere is that more evident than in San Francisco. Yes, I did just imply that Tim Rattay is a hot fantasy quarterback.
His team is terrible, but that’s exactly why he might be worth a start, and why his two biggest targets, Brandon Lloyd and Arnaz Battle, are worth starting consideration.
The 49ers are the new Arizona Cardinals. Remember back when Jake Plummer made a name for himself and WR David Boston by chucking the ball down the field 50 times a game while playing catchup and inflating their fantasy stats? That’s Rattay and the 49ers.
Save for one awful outing against the stout Philadelphia defense, the 49ers passing game has been respectable, at least in fantasy terms. In the other two games, Lloyd picked up a total of 202 yards and three touchdowns while Battle racked up 127 yards and a pair of scores.
Rattay, meanwhile, has increased his pass attempts and completions in each week of the season and quietly tossed five touchdown passes, which puts him ahead of guys with last names like Manning, Culpepper, Vick and Brady.
That improvement, also, will help open the 49ers running game, giving RB Kevan Barlow more chances and room to run. Barlow is averaging just 12 carries per game, this far.
Expect the 49ers passing game to thrive against the Arizona Cardinals this weekend with Rattay, Lloyd and Battle getting into the mix.
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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