Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

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.

2. Miles Austin (Dallas Cowboys) — Austin’s 1,320 receiving yards this season were third in the league; his 11 touchdown catches were tied for fourth; his 81 receptions were 15th. Those are legitimately great numbers for any receiver, but made greater considering he amassed those digits in just three-quarters of a season. Know what Austin’s numbers were from Weeks 1-4? Five catches, 81 yards, one touchdown.

In the 12 games he played after Week 4, Austin’s per-game averages were 6.3 catches, 103.3 yards and .83 touchdowns. Oh, and Dallas lost just three of those 12 games after dropping two of their first four. The only question is, what took you so long, Cowboys? I mean, there were probably some very smart people who had drafted Austin in their fantasy football leagues expecting a breakout season who decided that, after Week 4, with bye weeks having begun, it was time to drop him because a month is plenty long enough to evaluate his progress, only to see him turn into Jerry Rice, Jr. You know, smart people like me (Bitter? Me? Never!).

3. Randy Moss (New England Patriots) — Moss had some games this season that were, shall we say, uninspiring. The fact remains, however, that he did tie for the league lead with 13 touchdown receptions and tied for fifth with 1,264 receiving yards, making him No. 2 among wide outs in fantasy scoring.

But, question marks do surround Moss heading into next season. Wes Welker’s injury might mean he misses a big chunk out of the ’10 campaign, Moss will be 33, and the Patriots don’t seem to inspire the fear in opponents they once did. Look, Moss will still be coveted, and should produce at a fairly high level next season, but you have to wonder if his dominance has been exhausted.

4. DeSean Jackson (Philadelphia Eagles) — Jackson only had one more reception in 2009 than he did in his rookie season of 2008 (63 to 62), but he had 255 more yards (1,167 to 912), and more importantly, he caught nine touchdowns compared to only two in his rookie year. He’s a big-play machine, and had seven games with a play of at least 50 yards.

But, that’s where the caveat comes in with Jackson. He relies a lot on making those huge plays, and in games in which he didn’t do that, his production was minuscule. For example, he had games with one receiving yard, nine receiving yards and 29 receiving yards. For that reason, and that reason alone, he may fall just outside of the top-five in fantasy rankings of wide outs next season.

5. Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals) — It’s not like Fitzgerald was a huge disappointment this season, or, massively underachieved, or otherwise let any of his fantasy owners down, but … it just wasn’t quite what we all expected, was it? He was still fifth among wide outs in fantasy points, and he was the NFL co-leader with 13 touchdowns, but he was 17th in receiving yards with 1,092, a full 331 fewer than last season and the only time since his rookie year that he gained fewer than 1,400 in a season in which he played at least 15 games.

Despite all this, Fitzgerald will go into next season as a top-five fantasy receiver. If Kurt Warner returns, he’s likely the No. 2 wide out behind Andre Johnson. But if Warner retires, and Matt Leinart is given the keys to the car, Fitzgerald’s stock will fall, though not considerably.