TJ’s first year in the Pacific Northwest didn’t go quite as well as we envisioned – at least not compared to the previous three in Cincinnati. Houshmandzadeh had his fewest catches (79) since 2005 and his fewest TDs (3) since 2002 during his debut season with the Seahawks. That’s not the kind of production drop you want to see in a receiver who will be turning 33 this season, especially not a guy who had sports hernia surgery in the offseason.
Now, you can trace a lot of Houshmandzadeh’s problems of last season back to a shaky offensive line, the lack of a ground game and poor quarterback play from a banged-up Matt Hasselbeck and Seneca Wallace. But Seattle took significant steps to rectify those issues in the offseason, with new coach Pete Carroll bringing in esteemed assistant coach Alex Gibbs to revamp the offensive line and drafting left tackle Russell Okung and WR Golden Tate. On paper, the Seattle offense should be better, which can only help TJ’s numbers.
But ultimately, he’s still a 33-year-old receiver on the downside of his career. He’s still coming off a sports hernia, an injury that can resurface. He’s still got a creaky Hasselbeck (or untested new backup Charlie Whitehurst) throwing him the ball. There’s fantasy value here if you can get Houshmandzadeh as your third receiver, but not enough for me to stick my neck out and make him my No. 2 WR.
- QB ALEX SMITH at Seattle: The kid's thrown for 459 yards, 5 TDs and 1 INT in his past two games and faces the Seahawks' 25th-ranked passing D. If I'm fed up with my QB (Jay Cutler, Eli Manning ...) Smith is the guy I'm going to.
- RB KNOWSHON MORENO at Kansas City: Denver's rookie RB has topped 80 yards rushing in each of his past three games, and the Chiefs aren't exactly known as great run-stoppers.
- WR PIERRE GARCON vs. Tennessee: Indy's second-year receiver has scored a TD or topped 100 yards in each of his past three games, and the Titans aren't exactly known as great pass-defenders.
LAST WEEK'S PICKS
- Matt Hasselbeck was a bomb (14-for-25, 102 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs) as RB Justin Forsett did all the heavy lifting. My apologies.
- Jason Snelling got only 4 carries for 8 yards as the Falcons decided to go with an ineffective Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood for the majority of the rushing attempts.
- Chris Chambers caught 7 passes for 70 yards and a TD, solidifying his status as the Chiefs' No. 1 receiver.
- QB MATT HASSELBECK at St. Louis: The veteran's coming off a rough day in Minnesota (zero TDs, 1 INT in a 35-9 loss), but the Rams' secondary should be the perfect tonic.
- RB JASON SNELLING vs. Tampa Bay: The guy's scored three times in the past two games since starter Michael Turner got hurt, and he'll get the start again Sunday. You have to like the matchup, too, against a Bucs defense that's been torched by the likes of Pierre Thomas (92 yards), Rickey Williams (102 yards), Ronnie Brown (82 yards, TD) and Ryan Grant (96 yards, TD) in recent weeks.
- WR CHRIS CHAMBERS at San Diego: He's got 249 yards and two TDs in three games since becoming a Chief, and now he faces the team that cut him. I like it.
LAST WEEK'S PICKS
- Beanie Wells didn't quite have a career day against the Rams, but 74 yards and a TD will do the trick.
- Another rookie, LeSean McCoy, DID have a career day on the ground (99 yards, TD) in Chicago.
- Santonio Holmes caught 7 passes for 86 yards but, alas, didn't catch a TD as I predicted.
Random thoughts from another week of gridiron goodness:
- Take a bow, Tom Brady (380 yards, 6 TDs). You've got to be licking your chops thinking about Sunday's game against the Bucs in London.
- Do Drew Brees' 4 TD passes make up for not him not throwing one in the two games before that? Probably. But it'd be nice to see a little more consistency.
- I knew Visanthe Shiancoe (5 TDs in 6 games) and Brett Favre would be a great team.
- Remember when Willis McGahee was a hot pickup? After three consecutive dreadful weeks (5 carries, 11 yards; 1 carry, -2 yards; 7 carries, 3 yards), I'm extremely glad I didn't jump on that bandwagon and stuck with Ray Rice (194 total yards, 2 TDs) as the Raven runner to own.
- I'm surprised Ben Roethlisberger has thrown the ball so much this year - at least 30 attempts in every game this season - but the results have been great the past few weeks. I'm afraid they might not be the next two weeks (vs. Minnesota, at Denver), however.
- Jake Delhomme (9-for-17, 65 yards) is killing Steve Smith's value. So is the Panthers' rejuvenated running game. But I still don't think I can resist starting Smith this week against Buffalo.
- Clinton Portis registered his first 100-yard rushing game of the year Sunday. Too bad his upcoming schedule (Philly, at Atlanta, Denver, at Dallas, at Philly, New Orleans) and the Redskins' offensive turmoil (in other words, they suck) will make it hard for him to repeat it any time soon.
- Good to see the Jaguars' coaching staff took Maurice Jones-Drew's (33 carries, 133 yards, 3 TDs, plus 45 receiving yards) complaints to heart. Now let's see the same thing against Tennessee and Kansas City, OK?
- Matt Schaub now has 4 outstanding fantasy performances and two busts. Hopefully the Texans will keep airing it out and Schaub can be penciled in as a no-doubt, every-week starter.
- Aaron Rodgers still put together a good day (358 yards, 2 TDs) despite getting sacked 5 times. You can do that against Detroit (and Cleveland next week), but the Packers' protection problems have me very nervous about Rodgers in some of the tougher matchups he'll face later on.
- So much for Matt Hasselback (10-for-29, 112 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT) being back to fantasy starter status. That was painful.
QB MATT HASSELBECK, Seahawks: Just in case someone in your league got impatient and dropped him, Hasselbeck reminded owners he can be a fantasy force when healthy with his 241-yard, four-TD effort Sunday against Jacksonville. He's definitely usable when he's got a favorable matchup, and there will be a bunch of those this year, including against Arizona this week and later in the year against St. Louis, Detroit, Houston and Arizona again.
WR MILES AUSTIN, Cowboys: Could Austin be that big-play, Terrell Owens-like receiver Tony Romo has missed all year? His monstrous 10-catch, 250-yard, 2-TD performance should be a resounding yes. There are a number of reasons to be pessimistic - Roy Williams was out; Austin had just 4 catches entering Week 5; the bulk of his yards came after the catch; and the Chiefs are god-awful. But if Wade Phillips has any interest in keeping his job (sometimes I'm not so sure), he'll find ways to keep getting Austin the ball following Week 6's bye. There's a lot of upside here.
FOUR STARS
WR JEREMY MACLIN, Eagles: If it weren't for Austin's outburst, we'd all be talking about Maclin's 6-catch, 142-yard, 2-TD day. He'd had a pretty quiet rookie campaign before Sunday, but let's just say the Bucs defense has been susceptible to the kind of long bombs Maclin was born to catch. I'm not sure how consistently Maclin will be targeted from here on out - Kevin Curtis (knee) had been ahead of Maclin on the depth chart, and teammate DeSean Jackson was coming off two huge games before catching just 1 pass Sunday - but the rookie could break off a big play or two against Oakland or Washington in the next two weeks.
TWO STARS
TE BENJAMIN WATSON, Patriots: You know tight ends aren't consistently targeted in the Pats' offense, and Watson is no exception. However, he caught his third TD pass of the season Sunday (he had 2 in Week 1 against Buffalo), and he's going against the awful Titans and Bucs defenses in successive weeks. As long as the head injury he suffered Sunday doesn't turn out to be too serious, Watson could be worth the gamble if you're fishing for a TD.
Just when you thought it was safe to rank your fantasy QBs ... Brett Favre is back.
Remember this?
Forget it.
And this?
Never happened.
The old guy's latest return to the NFL shouldn't shake up things too much. If there's anything his 2008 campaign with the Jets taught us, it's that Favre is simply an average QB at this point (22 TDs, 22 INTs), one who is still capable of putting points on the board but is also a major injury risk. At age 39 (40 in October), that's to be expected.
The move to Minnesota shouldn't drastically alter his output, either. He's got some nice weapons at WR (Bernard Berrian, Percy Harvin), but then, he had some in New York too. He'll obviously have a stronger running game to rely on - maybe the league's best with Adrian Peterson toting the rock - but that just means he won't have to wing it as much as he has in years past, something which actually helped pad his fantasy stats in years past.
I'm amending my 2009 QB rankings to put Favre at No. 18, which makes him a low-level No. 2 QB in most 10-team leagues. In other words, he might make for a decent spot starter, but you can't rely on him to carry a team, and I wouldn't take him over younger, healthier, steadier veterans (Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Hasselbeck) or less established QBs who have more upside (Jay Cutler, Matt Cassel, Kyle Orton).
Thanks for nothing, Larry Johnson ... your two yards on seven carries were a big help. You really know how to get your owners' hopes up and then deliver a dud.
Thanks for nothing, Plaxico Burress ... your team torched the Seahawks, scoring 44 points, but you couldn't be a part of it because you were suspended. Fantasy no-names Domenik Hixon and Sinorice Moss got all the glory instead.
Thanks for nothing, Matt Hasselbeck ... you had Deion Branch and Bobby Engram back and still did nothing. I know you hurt your knee a little and your team was getting routed, but you belong on the fantasy bench until further notice.
Thanks for nothing, Chris Perry ... 13 carries for 31 yards and you lost another fumble, the fifth time you've put the ball on the ground this season already. When Cedric Benson is cutting into your playing time after just getting signed this week, you know you're on the hot seat.
Thanks for nothing, Brian Griese ... the Broncos had been awful against the pass, but yet you did squat before leaving with an elbow injury. Your fantasy usefulness may have expired with Jeff Garcia now back in the mix for the Bucs.
Jodie Foster's house has this tricked-out, burglar-proof room with four-inch-thick steel doors and security monitors where she can hide and keep tabs on the bad guys in case of a home invasion.
I have a similar room in my house, except mine has DirecTV's NFL package on the screens. It's where I go when I'm panicking about my fantasy teams, and I felt compelled to lock myself in there this past weekend after watching a few frightening performances.
I'm out now, I've analyzed their performances, crunched the numbers, and I'm ready to tell you if it's really time to panic about these guys:
Larry Johnson is not a happy camper in Kansas City after he received just 12 carries (and rushed for just 22 yards) in Sunday's loss to the Oakland Raiders. Johnson accuses the franchise of phasing him out, although critics would argue the Chiefs had to bench him and start throwing the ball once they were down by two scores and the Raiders had shut down the run.
Is this just a case of LJ being his usual disgruntled self? Coach Herm Edwards says he'd like Johnson to touch the ball 20-25 times a game, and we saw that in Week 1 (22 rushes for 74 yards against a good New England Patriots run D). I expect to see a similar workload this week at Atlanta, but I also have concerns about a passing game no one respects and an offensive line that's a shadow of its former run-blocking self. In other words, if Johnson's one of your starting RBs, I hope you have some good alternatives for later in the season.
Cleveland Browns QB Derek Anderson looks nothing like the Pro Bowl quarterback of a year ago, having thrown just one touchdown and two interceptions with a dismal 57.1 QB rating. Part of that can be blamed on the remnants of Hurricane Ike, which created less-than-ideal conditions in Sunday night's game and made Anderson's counterpart, Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, look almost as mediocre.
I'm not ready to declare Anderson's 2007 season a fluke yet. Last time I checked, he still has Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow to throw to, and the forecast for this week's game in Baltimore looks clear. I'm not looking for a replacement QB for at least two more weeks - after the Ravens, Anderson plays the Cincinnati Bengals, who he torched for five TDs in Week 2 last year.
Matt Hasselbeck's another struggling QB, but you can hardly blame him now that the Seattle Seahawks' receiving corps has been decimated. The team's lost Bobby Engram, Deion Branch, Nate Burleson, Seneca Wallace and Logan Payne to injury and replaced them with Billy McMullen, Courtney Taylor, Keary Colbert and Koren Robinson - not exactly the most reliable group of pass-catchers.
I don't particularly like any of those guys for fantasy purposes, although Robinson, a former Seahawks No. 1 draft pick, is intriguing. Still, I'm willing to bet Hasselbeck makes them look like stars this week against the lowly St. Louis Rams. The schedule gets tougher from there, so you'll want to have a spot starter in place, but I believe Hasselbeck can weather the storm and still be a viable No. 1 once Engram and/or Branch returns.
There's a report out there that the Broncos are going to hand over the starting QB reins to rookie Jay Cutler after watching Jake Plummer struggle all season. Cutler is intriguing from a fantasy perspective, as he's been considered by some to be the most NFL-ready QB in this year's rookie class. He also takes over control of a team thought to be a playoff contender, and ESPN's John Clayton says the change is expected to be permanent. It's probably safe to dump Plummer at this point - and let's face it, he probably wasn't helping too many teams out there anyway - and Cutler is worth a shot if you're looking for QB help.
Some other things you need to know:
-Saints rookie sensation Marques Colston will be a game-time decision with his high ankle sprain, which means you should probably look elsewhere if you have options. Hopefully the guy will be back soon to solidify that offensive rookie of the year award.
-The Bills are optimistic Willis McGahee will make his return against Jacksonville today. If he does, I'd imagine he'd split some carries with Anthony Thomas at least for one week and have a hard time against the Jags' run defense. Sit him for another week if you can.
-Matt Hasselbeck is expected to start Monday against Green Bay, and after seeing what Tom Brady and the Pats did to the Packers last week, this should be a great opportunity for Hasselbeck to shake off that rust.
Jason is a Penn State graduate and New Jersey native currently residing in Florida. He has worked as a sports reporter, editor and page designer at newspapers in three states.
In addition to his blog, Jason writes syndicated columns on fantasy baseball and football.
To ask him a fantasy question, inquire about his column, schedule a radio interview or tell him he's an idiot, contact him at jbartolone@hotmail.com.
