The premise is simple: I'll tell you what players you can confidently start the season with, and what players should cause your stomach to wobble if you have to start them. And for the record, I'm uncomfortable with the name "Redskins," but I'm being consistent in my labeling.
Washington Redskins
2006 stats at NFL.com and pro-football-reference.com
Clinton Portis (RB): last season I had the #2 pick, and I traded down to the #4 pick in order to move up in the third round (yes, when our league can't all congregate in one place for an auction draft and we're forced to do a snake draft, we allow pre-draft trades of picks). At #2, J-Rod selected Ladanian Tomlinson. At #4, I selected Clinton Portis. Take a guess how I feel about that now. But I’d still start Clinton Portis week one if I had him.
Chris Cooley (TE): In his three year career, Cooley has averaged 6.3 TDs per season. The last two seasons he's averaged 754 yards receiving. He's one of the good young TEs in the league, and his current lack of name recognition can make him a fantasy steal.
Santana Moss is not a fun fantasy WR to start. Since he joined the Redskins, he’s played in 30 total games and scored at least one touchdown in just 9 of them. In 2006 he had less than 40 yards receiving in 7 of 14 games. That’s poor production. He’ll get you a few really huge weeks, and a lot of dud weeks; that’s not a WR you want to star the season with. If he's one of my top 2 WRs going into the season, I'll perform a full body dry heave set to music, and by that I don't mean I'll dance, but I'll dry heave while listening to showtunes.
What about the D? Their safeties are going to scare me and with Smoot back in the fold where he was once effective, I'm a little wary of playing them. I'm not saying that they are going to be amazing, but they at least warrant some consideration. Two years ago, their defense had great numbers, if I remember correctly
ReplyDeleteBased solely on their 2006 numbers, they ranked 27th in points allowed, 29th in yards allowed, and 32nd in interceptions. But yes, adding Smoot and Landry definitely goes a long way toward improving what was a bad pass defense last season (30th in ypa allowed, 32nd in TDs allowed). They definitely could be starting fantasy D by the end of the season, but I'd start them in the bottom half at the start of the season.
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