Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

In the Bruno Boys’ latest installment of our annual series titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” Bruno Boys staff writer, Kyle Smith, takes a look at those wide receivers that fell short of preseason projections in 2009.

1. T.J. Houshmandzadeh (Seattle Seahawks) — Houshmandzadeh did catch 79 passes in the 2009 season, it’s just that instead of doing the equivalent of hitting a home run with those catches, he hit bunt singles. All … year … long.

So while placing 16th in the NFL in receptions is a good thing, coming in 28th in receiving yards with 911 – when you’re supposedly an elite wideout – is not. Even worse, Houshmandzadeh crossed the goal-line just three times all season, and two of those were in the same game. All in all, he provided his fantasy owners with nine games of five or fewer fantasy points, and 12 games with seven or fewer fantasy points.

2. Dwayne Bowe (Kansas City Chiefs) — Bowe doesn’t get a pass because he was suspended for four games – that’s why he’s on this list, as a matter of fact. The former first-round pick was playing well considering the team he was suiting up for, with five games of at least nine fantasy points among his first eight contests. Then, relative disaster struck. Bowe was busted for using a diuretic to lose weight instead of, you know, eating a salad.

The suspension meant Bowe was out at the worst time, from Weeks 11-14, just as fantasy owners were jockeying for playoff position. He came back for the season’s final three games, in which he accumulated five fantasy points, six fantasy points, and zero fantasy points, respectively. For the season, he placed 70th in the NFL in receiving yards with 589.

3. Braylon Edwards (Cleveland Browns / New York Jets) — It’s hard to put a guy on this list who is playing despite having a handicap that severely limits what he can do, but duty calls. As most of you know, Edwards was born with a rare affliction crudely termed “stone hands.” Essentially, it means his hands are as hard as concrete, and he has trouble holding onto certain objects, especially those made of soft leather.

Though we should probably admire his courage for continuing to play football with cobblestone-esque hands, we really have no choice but to put him on this list. After all, 45 catches for 680 yards and four touchdowns from a former third overall draft pick are numbers that speak for themselves.

4. Antonio Bryant (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) — Bryant ended the ’09 season with only 39 receptions for 600 yards and four touchdowns. Granted, he was a risk even coming off of his fantastic 2008 season, but his talents were obvious, and that was something fantasy owners latched on to.

Bryant was injured in the preseason, and never really seemed fully healthy this season, even missing some games. It also didn’t help that he was playing with a rookie quarterback in Josh Freeman whose accuracy is an issue, to say the least.

5 Bernard Berrian (Minnesota Vikings) — It was a merger sure to send Berrian’s fantasy stock skyward, just like a merger between two powerful companies would elevate their stock on Wall Street. Yes, Brett Favre was coming to the Twin Cities, and he was bringing with him (to borrow a phrase from Peyton Manning) his laser-rocket arm. Perfect! Berrian was one of the best deep threats in the game, and this was sure to be a Utopian alliance. But, a funny thing happened on the way to fantasy football heaven – a few games into the season, Berrian’s stock dropped like he was the fantasy equivalent of Enron.

Instead of Berrian becoming the beneficiary of Favre’s football-tossing prowess, it was players like Sidney Rice and rookie Percy Harvin who captured that role. Meanwhile, Berrian was on the outside looking in, with no games of even 80 receiving yards all season, and a career-low 11.2 yards-per-catch average as part of a 618-yard, 55-catch season.

6. Donnie Avery (St. Louis Rams) — The script says that players going into their second seasons in the NFL are supposed to improve, and after a fairly successful rookie campaign, the thought was that Avery would follow that script. Needless to say, he veered off course.

Avery collected 47 receptions for 589 yards and five touchdowns this season, with the scores being the only category he improved in. Then again, that’s the type of thing that happens when you catch passes from the Kyle Boller’s and Keith Null’s of the world, isn’t it?

7. Lee Evans (Buffalo Bills) — Like with the aforementioned Bernard Berrian, it was thought that a new teammate meant bigger and better things for Evans. Terrell Owens had arrived in Buffalo with much aplomb, but it didn’t take long to find out that what was supposed to be a powerful duo would fizzle like a defective firework on the Fourth of July.

Evans’ seven touchdowns were nice, but he simply wasn’t gaining enough yards for his fantasy owners to feel confident playing him; because when he didn’t score, he didn’t offer much. Evans caught only 44 passes, and racked up just 612 receiving yards, which was a career-low by more than 130 yards.

8. Domenik Hixon (New York Giants) — In the off-season, the biggest question surrounding the New York Giants was, “who the hell is Eli Manning going to throw to?” The logical wisdom said Hixon, considering he had excellent size and speed, and he was coming off a productive 2008 campaign that saw him catch 43 passes for 596 yards.

Unfortunately, the popular sleeper pick in fantasy drafts did little as Steve Smith, Mario Manningham and rookie Hakeem Nicks all stepped in front of him and produced. Hixon finished the season with 15 receptions for 187 yards – which ranked him 184th in the NFL and was a total that Andre Johnson surpassed in a single game twice this season.

9. Devery Henderson (New Orleans Saints) — You can’t say Henderson had a bad season, but it didn’t quite live up to expectations, either. His 804 receiving yards were a respectable 34th in the league, but his 51 receptions placed him 60th, and the two times he managed to sneak across the goal-line were a career-low.

Henderson’s average of 15.8 yards-per-catch wasn’t a career worst (he averaged 15.6 yards-per-catch in his rookie season of 2005), but it was the first time in three seasons he averaged less than 20.5 yards-per-reception.

10. Kevin Walter (Houston Texans) — Playing next to arguably the best receiver in football in Andre Johnson was supposed to open things up even further for Walter this season. After all, he had caught 60 passes for 899 yards and eight touchdowns in 2008, so an improvement in 2009 was expected as part of his natural progression. It didn’t happen.

Walter ended up with only 53 receptions for 611 yards and two touchdowns, each of which were his lowest totals since 2006. Instead of taking that proverbial step forward, he took one back, and wound up an ominous 66th in the NFL in receiving yards.

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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