Donnie Avery, WR, St. Louis Rams (1 Viewer)

2010 Player Spotlight Series

One of Footballguys best assets is our message board community. The Shark Pool is, in our view, the best place on the internet to discuss, debate and analyze all things fantasy football. In what's become an annual tradition, the Player Spotlight series is a key part of the preseason efforts. As many of you know, we consider the Player Spotlight threads the permanent record for analyzing the fantasy prospects of the player in question. This year, we plan to publish more than 140 offensive spotlights covering the vast majority of expected skill position starters.

Each week we will post a list of players to be discussed. Those threads will remain open for the entire preseason, and should be a central point to discussion expectations for the player in question. Importantly, analysis done in the first week of posting will be part of the permanent record in two ways. 1) At the end of the week, we will tally the projections into a consensus. 2) We will select a number of pull quotes from forum contributors who make a compelling statement or observation. Both the projections and pull quotes will be part of a published article on the main website.

Thread Topic: Donnie Avery, WR, St. Louis Rams

Player Page Link: Donnie Avery Player Page

Each article will include:

[*]Detailed viewpoint from a Footballguys staff member

[*]Highlighted member commentary from the message board threads

[*]FBG Projections

[*]Consensus Member Projections

The Rules

In order for this thread to provide maximum value, we ask that you follow a few simple guidelines:

[*]Focus commentary on the player (or players) in question, and your expectations for said player (or players)

[*]Back up your expectations in whatever manner you deem appropriate; avoid posts that simply say "I hate him" or "He's the best"

[*]Avoid redundancies or ... this should be about incremental analysis or debate

While not a requirement, we strongly encourage you to provide your own projections for the player (players):

Projections should include:

[*]For QBs: Attempts, Completions, Passing Yards, Passing TDs, Ints, Rush Attempts, Rush Yards, Rush TDs

[*]For RBs: Rushes, Rushing Yards, Rush TDs, Receptions, Receiving Yards, Receiving TDs

[*]For WRs & TEs: Receptions, Receiving Yards, Receiving TDs

Now let's get on with the conversation! We look forward to your contributions and let me offer a personal thanks in anticipation of the great debate and analysis.

Alot is going to depend on how good Bradford can be. I watched my fair share of Rams games, and it was scary how good Averys numbers could have been had he had a decent QB. I cant count how many times he was under thrown when he was wide open deep. I doubt Bradford will be able to help much in his rookie season, but any improvment should help.

Avery has the talent to be Desean Jackson light, but he will need alot of things to come together to do it. I still think he can put up an OK season in 2010, maybe WR3 numbers.

61 rec. 829 yards, 6 TD's, 14 carries, 102 yards, 1 TD.

A lot has to go right for Avery to be a fantasy starter in my opinion. Not that I am down on his talent but the Rams have a journey man QB / Rookie combo throwing the ball, an offensive line that is untested, injured (Brown has a broken foot and concussion history), and are best suited for run blocking, and three other guys to fight with to catch the ball. Let's face it, despite limited options Avery has not distinguished himself and the fact that he let 2 perfectly placed TD bombs fall through his forearms last year keeps me worried. His routes are a work in progress, isn't a posession type guy, and his concentration on the deep bombs leave much to be desired. If he's not catching long routes he isn't a great option.

On the positive side, from all reports the guy has grown up quite a bit. According to Jim Thomas he spent the offseason gaining 20 pounds of muscle while looking "quicker than ever". He also spent 3 weeks working with Henry Ellard working on his routes. His fellow receivers are injury risks. He's got the upside.

He could end up with 40 catches and 500 yards, 3 tds or upside of 65 900 6. I would wager he'll improve to 60 760 5tds.

How is Avery looking in camp/pre-season? Or even the rest of the WR corps in St. Louis? A bad team with a bunch of young WRs seems like theres got to be some kind of deep fantasy value here.