Welcome all to The Market. For those of you active on FantasySharks my alias is OarChambo [the guy with the “ask me” thread in the trade and waiver forum], for those of you that are not active…well, my name is Mark. Hi.
This is going to be a weekly offering in 2007 provided here on FantasySharks, I will do my best to get it released each week by Tuesday night so all can use this resource for the current week’s trading activity. The objective of this column will be to offer one man’s opinion on the trade-ability of a small sample of players. The players will vary week-to-week and I will do my best to offer my thoughts on players who are of the most interest to the reading public and of players I have not offered an opinion on before. If a player is mentioned more than once in my series of columns then my opinion on that player’s value has changed; otherwise, I will not duplicate reviews on players. If you would ever like me to include a particular player in my weekly write up please send me a pm, I always have an open ear…er, eye.
Anyway, onto the players – we’ll start off with the player who’s name has been passed around the forum boards more than Paris Hilton in a skanky… I mean swanky LA club: Kevin Jones.
Kevin Jones
Buy Low…dirt cheap low. You may have a few week window in which to purchase him, but once the
Jerious
Sell high. The predraft buzz about this guy has vaulted his ADP from the middle rounds back in May to as high as the end of the 2nd round in a recent dynasty draft I participated in. He may have gone higher elsewhere, but this is as high as I’ve seen him go. And I don’t get it. I liked this kid for the value I was getting back in May, but now? Absolutely not. Drafting him at his current value would essentially mean I plan to use this guy in my starting lineup more than half the time. Something I would never plan on doing with this guy, especially given what’s happened to…um, *that quarterback*. The NFL viewing public is going to see first hand how much that quarterback meant to
Buy low. His value has never been this low and I doubt it will be until long after he eclipses the age of 30. I have witnessed him plummeting to the 4th and 5th round on more than a few occasions, this is just criminal. The following is a demonstration of a conversation I have had with more than one person in the last week – 2nd round? Fine. 3rd round? Ok. But any further? That’s just wrong. Fact is, when healthy he produces like an RB1. But that’s exactly the counter argument against selecting him, the injury. Fine. But what about his handcuff? LaDell Betts came in last season and produced RB1 #’s as well. Ok, now what am I to do? Simple, draft Portis in the 3rd or 4th round then handcuff Betts in the 8th or 9th. But Betts would just be wasting a roster spot if Portis never played. Incorrect, if Betts never sees the field then you will have no need for whoever you draft at RB4/5 [if it weren’t Betts] because that means Portis stayed healthy and why would you ever start your RB4 or 5 no matter the matchup when you have a healthy top 10 RB? You’ll be relying on your RB2, RB3, and [hopefully] RB4 to start your other RB position week-to-week, something I’d feel secure doing. Your other position? The
Maurice Jones-Drew
I am writing about this guy now because I do not think I’ll have an opportunity to do so later on in the season. Soon enough everyone will be a believer, this guy has done nothing but tear it up at every level of football he has ever played. All along the way his size has been questioned and every step of the way he has proved the doubters wrong; he is a goal line machine, has an explosive burst through the hole most RBs only dream of having, some of the best vision and decision making I’ve seen, and defender’s can’t ever find him to tackle him because he’s so much shorter than those around him. There isn’t a weakness in this guy’s game [except for his height – if you want to call that a weakness], he is the future at RB in arguably one of the best running attacks in the game, he gets the goal line carries, he catches passes, and he returns kicks [although I suspect Jax will cut this aspect out of his job assignments for this season]. What is there not to like about this guy? I’m tired of hearing that he can’t possibly duplicate last season’s stats simply because he is in a time share, that he’s a fluke; many people forget he barely played at all until into October and still produced top 5 numbers. If he stays healthy he will finish top 10 again this season… probably top 5, he can be purchased at a late 2nd round value in most leagues – buy now before it is too late.
Santana Moss
I thought I’d add one non-RB into my first article of the season. After all, there are other positions, right? Anyway, Santana? Remember what he did in 2005? You know he has it in him to produce like a stud. Problem? He suffered through a hammy-plagued 2006 and Mark Brunell finally showed his age; his production was non existent [except for that 3 TD Jax game, an aberration to say the least] last season… until Jason Campbell was handed the starting job. With each passing week last season you could see the offense functioning significantly better with
Well, that will do it for part I of this series. I encourage feedback, both positive and negative – probably more negative, negative criticism is easier than positive, right? If you’re interested in doing so please start a thread in the Article Discussion forum in the tank; I’ll be keeping a lookout. Hope you all enjoyed, now go to the trade market now!