Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

- Written By Ryan Boser
- Edited By Allie Fontana

It’s no secret that fantasy football championships can potentially be won with the right value pick or two in the middle to late rounds of your draft. However they can just as easily be lost by squandering early or middle round picks on players who fail to deliver results that match pre-draft expectations. Guys who fall into this category are commonly referred to as busts or overvalued players. Overvalued players tend to be those whose name recognition, preseason hype and/or past fantasy glory (think Randy Moss, Ryan Mathews, Brett Favre) lead owners to draft them too early, while the majority of busts are players whose situations have changed so much (e.g., new quarterback, new team, new coaching staff/scheme, upgrade or downgrade of players around them) that they’ll have a hard time living up to expected production. Others have significant injury histories to the extent that the risk far outweighs the reward.

Now it’s time to take a look at our Fantasy Football Bust Wide Receivers for the 2011 season. You don’t have to avoid every guy on this list come Draft Day, just go into your draft with your eyes wide open.

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Dwayne Bowe, WR, Kansas City Chiefs
2010 Stats: 72 receptions, 1,162 receiving yards, 15 total touchdowns

Bowe was a man among schoolboys during his incredible seven-game fantasy frenzy midway through the 2010 season. The scoring spree produced 49 catches, 732 yards and a mind-bending 13 touchdowns. To put it in perspective, Bowe’s seven-week production alone—148 fantasy points—would have put him one spot ahead of Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald, who finished with 147 points (No. 14 overall) in standard scoring for the season.. Unfortunately, his unexpected, unsustainable run of dominance was bookended by four- and five-game blocks of nothingness. In those other nine games, Bowe totaled just 23 catches for 429 yards and two scores. His roller coaster season was punctuated by a zero-target disaster against the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs.

Fantasy owners considering Bowe on Draft Day should not bet on lightning striking twice—we probably saw his ceiling in 2010.  The Kansas City Chiefs made offseason moves to counter the double and triple teams that plagued Bowe down the stretch. In April, they drafted Pitt’s Jonathan Baldwin at No. 26 overall and recently signed former Arizona Cardinals wideout Steve Breaston through free agency. While the new faces should loosen things up for Bowe, they will also cost him targets. It’s also important to keep in mind that the Chiefs set a franchise record last season with 32 passing touchdowns (15 to Bowe), something that won’t be easy to repeat. The team finished with a 10-6 record and won the AFC West Division, which means their 2011 schedule is significantly tougher.  Bowe is too talented to bust outright, however fantasy owners are better off targeting him as a WR2 than a WR1.