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The Biggest Fantasy Football Letdowns of 2007
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Every season it happens - a key player gets injured or one of your fantasy studs underperforms. As a result, there are many long faces and many championships lost around the world of fantasy football. Often times, these are unforeseeable factors that directly affect our dreams of fantasy glory. With the 2007 regular season all wrapped up, let's take a look back at Ten of the Biggest Fantasy Letdowns from the '07 Season...
Larry Johnson Not Living Up to Standards Yes, standards and not expectations. With veteran RB Priest Holmes out of the picture (for the most part) and no anticipated competition at the position, Chiefs RB Larry Johnson set a pace that began in his breakout 2005 campaign. In the two seasons preceding '07, Johnson recorded 1,750+ yards on the ground with a combined 40 total touchdowns. It did not seem to matter that veteran offensive linemen like Willie Roaf and John Welbourn were out of the picture in Kansas City - Johnson was the Chiefs workhorse and his tough running was projected to rack up big yardage. However, we all should have been weary from the start, after the fifth-year back was a training camp hold-out. Nevertheless, Johnson was still labeled as one of this season's "Big Three" in fantasy football, and owners played into the hype. Ultimately, that high 1st Round fantasy selection turned into a complete headache, as Johnson averaged just under 70 rushing yards per contest and notched 4 total touchdowns through the first eight games of the year... only to end up being sidelined for the remainder of the season after Week 9.
"Mr. Consistency" Not So Consistent in ‘07 As you have heard time and time again in articles here at FIO, consistency (regardless of sport) is the key to building championship-caliber teams. Yet, this mantra is no more apparent than when looking at the running back position in fantasy football. Prior to the start of the season, one player whose name had become synonymous with consistency was Cincinnati RB Rudi Johnson. From 2004-2006, Johnson was a lock to post 1,300+ rushing yards and 12 TD's each and every season. With all the pieces still intact in Cincy, there was no reason to think that Johnson would not again be a solid #1 fantasy running back option. In turn, he was selected no later than the tail-end of the 1st Round in many standard-scoring leagues. However, hampered by an early-season hamstring injury and with the Bengals in turmoil as a team, Johnson posted only one game of 100+ rushing yards and tallied only 4 total touchdowns on the year. He was limited to playing 11 games over the course of the year due to his injury, and always left fantasy owners in question as to whether or not he would see the field in any given week.
St. Louis Cannot Capitalize on Playmaking Ability Forget about everything you know concerning the 2007 season. Instead, take yourself back to pre-season in August. Now think of the Rams and all of their potential playmakers - RB Steven Jackson, QB Marc Bulger, WR Torry Holt, and even the newly acquired TE Randy McMichael. The pieces were all in place for St. Louis to be another up and coming team out West to challenge the incumbent Seattle Seahawks for the division title. Both Bulger and Jackson were coming off of career years, and Holt and McMichael were still putting up great numbers and considered viable fantasy options. Nevertheless... (Read the full article here: The Biggest Fantasy Football Letdowns of 2007)
