Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

As much as fantasy football owners hope to find sleepers during the middle-to-late rounds of the draft, the ultimate success of your fantasy season can boil down to how well you avoid the busts - especially among those guys that you draft in the first five rounds. Just because a player makes the bust list, doesn’t necessarily mean you have to avoid him completely on draft day (though we’ll let you know who to avoid altogether). Some, not all busts are overvalued players, while the majority have seen their situations change (e.g., new team, new coaching staff, upgrade or downgrade of players around them, injuries, etc.) or are likely to have a hard time living up to expectations. Use our 2010 Fantasy Football Busts Tight Ends list as a guide to move some players down your draft board.

Jeremy Shockey, TE, New Orleans Saints – As mentioned in our tight end sleeper article, Shockey is now entering his ninth season in the NFL and has yet to play a full 16-game season. For such a big name, Shockey has also never had more than seven touchdowns and 900 yards receiving in a single season, so he has always been relatively overvalued. This season could prove to be the year that Shockey slips into obscurity because the Saints now have two tight ends, David Thomas and rookie Jimmy Graham, who can push aside the veteran.

Thomas proved to be a go-to target for quarterback Drew Brees at times last season, and he is expected to build on that in 2010. Graham comes from the Antonio Gates mold; a former basketball player/great athlete turned tight end. Graham is most likely too raw to make much of an impact this season, but just his presence on the team lowers Shockey’s value. If Shockey can even stay on the field all season, which he has never done his entire career, Thomas, Graham and the plethora of receiving options at Brees’ disposal will prove to be too much for Shockey to overcome. He’s listed 18th on our fantasy football consensus cheat sheet, but he will most likely slide below that this season.