Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

With the entire regular season in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to take a look back at 2009 and whether our favorite players lived up to, or failed to live up to, our expectations. That’s right, it’s time for our annual series entitled “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”. In this installment, Bruno Boys Whooley will tackle THE BAD tight ends for 2009. Remember, THE BAD tight ends 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.

As mentioned previously in our article looking at THE GOOD tight ends for 2009, 2009 was a bounce back year for the position, as every member of the position’s top-10 at season’s end had over 100 fantasy points, a vast improvement over 2008. Still, despite the position’s general strong play, there were still those that disappointed us some throughout the season. You can find these individuals below, composing our list of THE BAD tight ends for 2009.

THE BAD

1. Jason Witten (Dallas Cowboys) — Heading into 2009, Jason Witten occupied the Bruno Boys top spot among fantasy tight ends. Not only was Tony Romo’s favorite target coming off a year in which he had finished in the top-3 among tight ends for fantasy points with 119, thanks to 952 yards receiving and 4 TDs, but he also appeared to be in line for a few more targets thanks to the departure of wide receiver, Terrell Owens.

Witten, though, didn’t quite have the fantasy impact that we expected. Yes, the tight end caught 13 more balls in 2009 (94) than he did in 2008 (81), and yes his yardage total climbed from 952 to 1,030. Still, Witten finished just 8th among tight ends in fantasy points when all was said in done – not quite what his owners had in mind when they drafted the tight end early in their fantasy drafts. While some of that was the result of other tight ends upping their game, some of the responsibility falls on Witten’s shoulders as he found pay dirt just twice all season long.
Witten came on strong towards the end of the regular season with all four of his double digit outings coming in Week 12 or later, and he should be able to carry that momentum into 2010 as he benefits from team’s having to focus more and more on Miles Austin. As a result, don’t let Witten’s appearance on THE BAD list keep you from drafting him in next year’s fantasy draft.

2. John Carlson (Seattle Seahawks) — As fantasy football is built largely around the “what have you done for me lately?” school of thought, many may wonder why Carlson resides among THE BAD tight ends for 2009. After all, the tight end did reach pay dirt in each of his last four games this year. The problem, though, is that prior to that streak, Carlson had scored just 3 TDs in his previous 12 games with two of those three coming in the first week of the season. The result? An 11-game streak in which Carlson provided his owners with more than just 5 fantasy points once.

When all was said and done, Carlson exactly matched his fantasy point total from his rookie season with 92. While it’s great he avoided a sophomore slump, expectations were that Carlson would take a step forward, especially with the arrival of TJ Houshmandzadeh to Seattle, taking some pressure off of the tight end. Due to the fact that he failed to progress, Carlson sits here on THE BAD list for 2009.

The torrid TD streak Carlson had towards the end of the season does make him a player you can take a chance on in 2010, though. Grab him as your back-up tight end, and reap the benefits, if he continues his solid play in the red zone.

3. Zach Miller (Oakland Raiders) — Miller’s numbers across the board from 2008 to 2009 all improved. Unfortunately, for the Raiders’ tight end, the point of THE BAD list is not to compare a player’s performance from one year to the next, but rather, to judge them with how their play on the field lived up to our fantasy expectations going into the year. For Miller, those expectations were high as the tight end looked ready to crack the top-10 among the position after coming in at 11th in 2008.
However, Miller ended up falling among tight ends rather than moving up as he finished the 2009 season as the 12th best tight end option. Little blame, though, can be placed on Miller as he undoubtedly did his best despite playing the majority of his games at a disadvantage with JaMarcus Russell at QB.

Miller’s value in 2010 will largely be determined by who wins the starting job for Oakland this off-season. If it is Russell, we’d begin looking elsewhere for a tight end.

4. Jeremey Shockey (New Orleans Saints) — Perhaps we set up Shockey to be on this list by placing him in the unlucky 13th spot in our preseason rankings. Nevertheless, the Saints’ tight end hasn’t exactly been able to get things going since joining New Orleans. While his second season was much more productive than his first, with him actually finding pay dirt this year (3 TDs total), Shockey’s tally of 569 yards and 3 scores made him just the 18th best fantasy tight end this season.

Shockey has yet to play a full 16 games in any season of his 8-year career, and while the Saints high-potent passing attack is always a threat to put up points, Drew Brees has so many weapons, that Shockey is never a shoe-in to be the one who benefits from the passing game’s production. For 2010, take a chance on an emerging talent at the tight end slot instead of hoping for Shockey to bounce back to being one of the premier talents at his position.

5. Kevin Boss (New York Giants) — With Boss hauling in 9 more passes (42 to 33) and nearly 200 more yards (567 to 384), it was a bit difficult to place him among THE BAD for 2009. However, while Boss showed improvement, it didn’t match the increase many of us experts expected.

Heading into 2009, the New York Giants parted ways with both Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer, apparently opening the door for Boss to assume a larger role with the team. Nine more receptions over 16 games, doesn’t exactly demonstrate that Boss took hold of that role.

Boss is still young, coming in at just 26 years of age, so there is definitely upside to be had here, but with many young tight ends coming up the ranks with more potential, Boss should be looked at as nothing but a back-up option for 2010.

2009 The Good:  QB  |  RB  |  WR  |  TE  |  K  |  DEF

2009 The Bad:  QB  |  RB  |  WR  |  TE  |  K  |  DEF

2009 The Ugly:  QB  |  RB  |  WR  |  TE  |  K |  DEF

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