‘08 Fantasy Football Wide Receivers Sleepers & Busts

Sleepers

Jerricho Cotchery, New York Jets. No one stands to gain more from the arrival of Brett Favre then Cotchery. He is the Jets one legitimate deep threat, and with the noodle arm of Chad Pennington and the inaccuracy of Kellen Clemens, his skills would have never been properly utilized. Now with #4 in town, the Jets have a quarterback who can throw the deep ball to Jerricho. He has caught 82 passes in each of the past two seasons, but I expect that he will get into the 90 range in 2008. He has also only caught eight touchdowns since 2006, a number that he could surpass in 2008 alone. He’s got the speed and the hands to be a quality NFL receiver, now he’s got the quarterback who is able to deliver him the ball.

DeSean Jackson, Philadelphia Eagles. With the injuries to starts Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown, Jackson is getting plenty of chances to show his stuff this preseason, and the Eagles second round pick is taking full advantage of this opportunity. He is leading the NFC in both receptions and yards this preseason, and also returned a punt 76 yards for a touchdown in his last game. And while Brown looks to be ready by the start of the season, Curtis definitely will not be as he recovers from hernia surgery. This all adds up to if Jackson continues to impress, he could find his way to a possible starting job Week 1 for the Eagles, and since they haven’t had an impact receiver since T.O. left town, Jackson has a chance to make some noise.

Anthony Gonzalez, Indianapolis Colts. When Marvin Harrison went down with his knee injury in 2007, Gonzalez kind of sputtered out of the gate. He was wildly inconsistent for the rest of the season, as his game log was either he caught one or two passes in a game, or six or seven. There was no in between. In three games in December, Gonzalez managed 15 catches for 242 yards and three scores, putting him on the fantasy map. He followed that up with a four catch, 79 yard game with a touchdown in the playoffs to further prove he is someone that the Colts can count on. Marvin Harrison will be back at the start of this season, but his time at the top of the fantasy rankings are clearly behind him, meaning that Gonzalez should have more opportunities to catch passes in Indy. He obviously has built some sort of connection with Peyton Manning from his extensive playing time in ‘07, so even as a third receiver he will have some value. Everyone knows that Manning likes to spread the ball around.

Others to consider: Sidney Rice, Minnesota Vikings; Patrick Crayton, Dallas Cowboys; Steve Smith, New York Giants; Mark Bradley, Chicago Bears; Devin Thomas, Washington Redskins; Roydell Williams, Tennessee Titans; Laurent Robinson, Atlanta Falcons; Robert Meachem, New Orleans Saints

Busts

Steve Smith, Carolina Panthers. Once the number one receiver in all of fantasy, Smith’s stock has taken a hit over the past couple of years. Since his breakout year in 2005, Smith hasn’t topped 90 catches or reached 1,200 yards since. He has been dealing with nagging injuries and inconsistent quarterback play the last couple of years, and has also failed to score double digit touchdowns for two straight seasons. His favorite QB Jake Delhomme will at least be healthy to start the 2008 season, so that could help, but now Smith has gotten himself suspended by the team for the first two regular season games for cold cocking teammate Ken Lucas. He gets a little bit of a pass for last season since it was David Carr under center throwing the ball, but it is just so hard for Smith to find open space when it is so obvious he’s getting the ball. The Panthers have an inconsistent running game, and the other receivers around Smith (Muhammad, Hackett, Jarrett) can only be described as average at best. Unless Carolina can find someone else who can get the defense’s attention, Smith will be hard pressed to return to his 2005 form.

Javon Walker, Oakland Raiders. After forcing his way out of Green Bay following the 2005 season, fantasy owners (including myself), still had high hopes for Walker. Everyone was still drooling after his 89-catch, 12 TD season the year before. But Denver never got the same player. He played the whole season in 2006, but only caught 69 passes. Another knee injury in 2007 cost him most of the season, and got him out of favor in Denver. He signed a big contract with the Raiders this offseason, but apparently had decided that he wanted to retire. He was talked out of that decision by Raiders’ owner Al Davis, and is supposed to be having a pretty good preseason. However, I don’t really like guys on my teams that have had two bad knee injuries in four seasons and then need to be talked out of retirement. Couple that with a QB situation that you still don’t know what you are going to get, and my guess is someone else will draft Walker long before I think you should. Let someone else take this headache.

Devin Hester, Chicago Bears. For two seasons now, Hester has supposed to have been a integral part of the Bears offense. Well, last season he caught a whopping 20 passes, and five of them came in one game. Unless you are in a league that offers you points for returning kicks and punts, I don’t see Hester being a guy who offers you too much. He has only caught four passes for under 40 yards this preseason. Also, you can’t expect Kyle Orton to turn into a quality NFL quarterback, so that is going against Hester as well. He is nothing more than a novelty at this point, let someone else draft this sideshow.

Others to avoid: Jerry Porter, Jacksonville Jaguars; Wes Welker, New England Patriots; Donte Stallworth, Cleveland Browns;

Our friends over at betfirms.com also have an article on some wide receiver sleepers, check it out! They are also a good source for you football gamblers to bet on anything you can think of this football season, including who might get arrested first!!!!!