Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

With the running back position being such an important position in the world of fantasy football, nabbing a bad running back in your fantasy draft can seriously hurt your championship aspirations. As we continue are annual installment of “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” it’s time to take a look at THE BAD running backs of 2009. While many of the running backs who made this list were fairly productive and were just an injury, a touchdown or a few yards away from having a good season, when it comes to fantasy football sometimes a couple of points can make a difference between THE GOOD and THE BAD. Needless to say, the players below didn’t quite match their owners’ draft day expectations.

THE BAD

1. LaDainian Tomlinson (San Diego Chargers) — There is often a fine line between THE GOOD and THE BAD when it comes to being an NFL running back and that is no different when it comes to fantasy football. LaDainian Tomlinson had 12 touchdowns during the year, which was good, but he finished with just 754 yards and averaged 3.2 yards per carry. These totals were well below his career averages and well below what was expected of him heading into the season. He started the year as our No. 6 ranked running back, but he finished 2009 as the 20th best fantasy running back. It has often been said that a NFL running back starts to decline at the age of 30 and this appears to be true in the case of Tomlinson who turned 30 this past June as he put up the worst yardage totals of his phenomenal career.

It’s hard to say at this point what to expect from LT in 2010. There are rumors flying that this may have been his last season with the San Diego Chargers. So before we say if he can improve on what was a bad season by the high standards that he set over the first eight years of his career, we will need to see where he is playing and what his role will be. Tomlinson was arguably the best running back of the first decade of the new millennium, but be careful not to overrate him heading into next season as it could end up being another disappointing year for a running back that offered so much excitement for fantasy owners early in his career.

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With the entire regular season in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to take a look back at 2009 and how the players lived up, or failed to live up, their expectations. That’s right, it’s time for our annual installment of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and we’ll kick things off with a look at the quarterbacks. Some players, like Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints and Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts lived up to our high expectations. Others, such as Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears and Matt Cassel of the Kansas City Chiefs, did not live up to the hype.

With that said, it’s time to take a look at THE BAD quarterbacks from 2009. Remember, THE BAD quarterbacks are those that struggled to live up to their pre-season expectations, but weren’t so bad that you had to reach for the pepto every time you watched them.

THE BAD

1. Carson Palmer (Cincinnati Bengals) — The Cincinnati Bengals won the AFC North and went to the playoffs this season, though it wasn’t because of quarterback Carson Palmer’s arm. Relying on good defense and a solid running game, Palmer looked nothing like what we’ve seen from him in the past, and he was especially far removed from the 2005 season, the last time the Bengals went to the playoffs. This season, Palmer threw for 3,094 yards with 21 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while completing 60.5 percent of his passes. Though those stats aren’t terrible, it represented his second-lowest touchdown output since 2004, which was his first season as a starter. He also averaged a mere 6.6 yards per attempt, well below his career average of 7.1. In fact, his numbers across the board were all well below his single-season averages.

There isn’t much of an excuse for Palmer. The team played well in 2009, but he could have been better. There’s little doubt about his arm, but you have to wonder if the injuries have made him hesitate on throws or forced him to rush through his progressions when he’s in the pocket. Either way, it was a disappointing year for Palmer, and he’s got a lot work to do to prove to us that it was just a fluke.

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In years past, the logic has been to select one good defense in your fantasy football draft and stick with that unit for the rest of the season. As you will see below, the traditional defensive powers did not have the same kind of success in 2009 that we are accustomed to. As a result, many of you were forced to play the waiver wire with defenses this season, benefiting from the plethora of bad offenses in the NFL giving up big weeks to mediocre defensive units on a weekly basis. Many times those terrible offenses allowed a defense to be not only a top scorer in all of fantasy for that given week, but the difference between a fantasy win and a loss. Picking a defense late has never been a bad strategy and as you will see, 2009 was a prime example.

In the Bruno Boys’ latest installment of a three week long series titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” in which we’ll take a look back at the 2009 regular season and evaluate “the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” at each position, Greg Warnock takes a look at THE GOOD defenses that got the job done in 2009.

1. San Francisco 49ers D/ST — In the pre-season, we talked about the 49ers as a unit that could possibly be a strong candidate for a sleeper type defense, making a solid starter against weaker opponents. Well, San Francisco certainly exceeded our expectations as well as everyone else who ranked this defense in the bottom half of the league. In standard scoring leagues, San Francisco was the best D/ST in fantasy football in 2009 with 167 points. Most of those points did come against bad teams as expected, with 75 points coming against the Detroit Lions and St. Louis Rams (twice).

This season, San Francisco’s defense gave up 326.4 yards and 17.6 points per game with 44 sacks and 33 turnovers. Those numbers were drastic improvements under first year head coach Mike Singletary, who applied discipline to a young defensive core. With many of their guys coming back next season and having a lot of room to grow, don’t be surprised to see the 49ers defense be a top-5 pick in 2010.

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It’s tough to recall a time when the the kicker has played a bigger role in the NFL and fantasy football season. In what can be considered a remarkable statistic, 17 kickers topped 100 fantasy points in standard scoring leagues and 13 of those kickers averaged over seven fantasy points per game. Leading the way was San Diego Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding who connected on 32 field goal attempts and scored 155 fantasy points. Kaeding averaged 9.7 fantasy points per game and this would have made him a top-20 running back, a top-12 wide receiver and a top-4 tight end. So for those of you who think finding a kicker to lead your fantasy team is a dime a dozen, you’re wrong. Based on these numbers, if you had a consistent kicker, you were likely to get RB2 or WR2 value from him on a weekly basis.

With that being said, it’s time for our annual installment of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. In this edition, we take a look at THE GOOD kickers who either matched or exceeded our preseason expectations.

THE GOOD

1. Nate Kaeding (San Diego Chargers)  — Entering 2009, we pegged Kaeding as our fourth rated kickers in our Preseason Cheat Sheet Magazine but when it was all said and done no kicker scored more fantasy football points. Using a combination of a high powered San Diego offense and an accurate leg Kaeding was at the top of every major kicking category. He tied for the league lead in field goals made with 32, he was second in extra points made with 50 and his 155 fantasy points were tops at the position. Kaeding had 10 games in which he knocked down two or more field goals and in nine of those games he scored double-digit fantasy football points. From Week 8 and beyond Kaeding was a perfect 18-of-18 on field goal attempts and on the season the big legged kicker converted on nine kicks that were over 40 yards.

With the Chargers offense ranking in the top-5 in points scored (28.4 points per game) this season and showing no signs of slowing down you can expect Kaeding to be a hot commodity heading into 2010. He has attempted 30 or more field goals in each of his last two seasons and kicked 45 or more extra points in all six seasons. On draft day 2010 you can expect Kaeding to be the first kicker to placed on your Commish Kit Draft Board.

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With the entire regular season in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to take a look back at 2009 and how the players lived up to, or failed to live up to, their expectations. That’s right, it’s time for our annual installment of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. And, for the most part, 2009 was good to the tight end position. Coming off a year in which just eight tight ends surpassed the 90 point mark for the 2008 fantasy football season, tight ends re-established themselves as pass catchers in 2009 with every member of the top-10 surpassing the century mark in fantasy points.

While the usual names of Dallas Clark, Antonio Gates, Jason Witten, and Tony Gonzalez were among that group, many new faces had a real fantasy impact at the tight end position. None of which was more surprising than Vernon Davis of the San Francisco 49ers. Despite his incredible athletic abilities, Davis just never showed a handle on the NFL game as his career highs prior to 2009 were a mere 509 receiving yards and 4 TDs back in 2007. Davis crushed those numbers in 2009, finishing the year with 965 receiving yards and 13 TDs, a number that tied Gates’ single-season record for the tight end position. Those totals were enough to give Davis the top spot at season’s end among fantasy tight ends, and the top spot in our list of THE GOOD tight ends for 2009.

THE GOOD

1. Vernon Davis (San Francisco 49ers) — We’ll be the first to admit that our pre-season projections were way off when it came to Vernon Davis, a man we ranked as the 20th tight end going into the year. But, any expert that tells you they knew the 49ers’ tight end was due for a break out season is just flat out lying. Despite receiving constant praise for the physical specimen he was, Davis just never lived up to the hype prior to 2009. In fact, in three years in the league, he had totaled just 1,132 receiving yards and 9 TDs, numbers he either came close to matching or surpassed in 2009 with his 965 receiving yards and 13 TDs. Those numbers were good enough to give Davis the top spot among fantasy tight ends at season’s end, begging the question of whether 2009 or the three years prior were the aberration?

Heading into 2010, Davis’ value will undoubtedly be high. While he may not be some fantasy owners No. 1 at the tight end position, a spot in the top-5 seems a guarantee. And, those who do grab him will not be disappointed. The 49ers demonstrated in the second half of 2009 that they are dedicated to getting the passing game going, and with a whole off-season to work on the development of Alex Smith, Michael Crabtree, Josh Morgan and Davis, getting the aerial attack off the ground shouldn’t be a problem come next season.

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In another installment of the Bruno Boys three-week long series titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” Bruno Boy Kyle Smith takes a look back at the 2009 regular season and evaluates THE GOOD wide receivers. Remember, these are the men that got the job done in 2009, which means it should come at no surprise that the first wide out talked about is Houston Texans’ stud, Andre Johnson.

THE GOOD

1. Andre Johnson (Houston Texans) — Despite tying for 10th in the NFL this season in receiving touchdowns, with nine, Johnson led all wide outs in fantasy points (standard scoring) by leading the NFL with 1,569 receiving yards, a full 221 more than runner-up Wes Welker. Johnson accomplished this by accumulating six games with at least 100 yards, and four games of 130 or more yards.

Johnson was tied for third in the league with 101 catches, and over his last two seasons, he’s totaled 216 receptions for 3,144 yards and 17 touchdowns. He’ll be 29 next season, and should go into the year as the No. 1 fantasy wide receiver.

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Since the inception of fantasy football, the running back spot has been thought of as the most important position and that was no different in 2009. There were a lot of great fantasy performances at other positions, but running backs once again were very strong point producers for fantasy owners. While running backs like Brian Westbrook of the Philadelphia Eagles and Clinton Portis of the Washington Redskins have seemed to have lost their fantasy football value, other running backs like Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans and Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens have elevated themselves to the next level.

Entering the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs we have had plenty of time to ponder the 2009 fantasy football season and this seemed like a great time to start our annual installment of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. This installment we will take a look at THE GOOD running backs. The one thing you will notice from this list is all of these running backs not only met, but they exceeded preseason expectations.

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With the entire regular season in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to take a look back at 2009 and how the players lived up, or failed to live up, their expectations. That’s right, it’s time for our annual installment of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and we’ll kick things off with a look at the quarterbacks. Some players, like Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints and Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts lived up to our high expectations. Others, such as Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears and Matt Cassel of the Kansas City Chiefs, did not live up to the hype.

So, with that said it’s time to take a look at quarterbacks from the 2009 season. Keep in mind there is no “Pretty Good” or “Moderately OK” category so guys like Chad Henne of the Miami Dolphins and Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49ers are in no man’s land, at least for now. First up, is a look at THE GOOD quarterbacks, guys who had good seasons regardless of expectations. After that we’ll delve into THE BAD quarterbacks and then, for those of you willing to relive the pain, we’ll detail THE UGLY as you try not to lose your lunch.

THE GOOD

1. Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers) — We expected him to be good before the season started, but to see Rodgers outperform the likes of Brees, Manning and Tom Brady of the New England Patriots only confirms the potential for the second-year starter. This season, Rodgers completed 64.7 percent of his passes as he threw for 4,434 yards with 30 passing touchdowns and just seven interceptions. He also had five rushing touchdowns to go along with all of that. What’s even more shocking is that he did all that despite playing behind a poor offensive line that allowed him to be sacked 50 times, a number that tied Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers for the league lead. Rodgers also helped lead the Packers to wins in seven of their final eight games, which allowed Green Bay to make it into the playoffs.

Rodgers was the top fantasy quarterback this season while playing behind a very bad offensive line, which figures to be the main area of improvement in the off-season for Green Bay. Rodgers will only be entering his third year as a starter, but he’s already so good it’s hard to fathom what he might be capable of doing in 2010. With a better offensive line, there’s no reason to think that at some point Rodgers could take a shot at Brady’s single-season touchdown record of 50, which was set in 2007.

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