Fantasy Wasteland 2011: St. Louis (1 Viewer)

[The Jerk]

It's rare to have a team that is nearly devoid of fantasy material. The 2008 Lions, despite losing all 16 games, still had fantasy relevance at two positions (Calvin and Kevin Smith). The 2011 Rams are taking a run at having virtually no fantasy value. Steven Jackson is a likely RB2 if he can stay healthy, and that's basically it except for more non-standard leagues like deep start 2 QB leagues and IDP leagues.

Yet as I think about it, isn't some receiver likely to emerge with WR3 or at least WR4 value sometime during the season?

Danario Alexander has 23 targets in three games, leading the Rams in that category from Weeks 2-4. However, he only caught 8 of those 23 passes. The nearly 25 yard average per catch is nice, but the 35% reception to target ratio is not.

Brandon Gibson and Mike Sims-Walker each seemed to have some promise at one point as well.

I believe one of these receivers could be a good recycle project that can be had for next to nothing, but it doesn't seem clear who it is most likely to be.

The only game I have been able to watch was at the Giants. Other than that, it seems like there is a news blackout on the Rams. What's going on in St. Louis? Have there been any changes over the bye week? Any hope for the passing game?

I wish I had more -- or any -- insight into the situation. That's why I'm throwing this out to the Shark Pool.

Thanks to any Rams watchers out there who can provide some guidance to the masses.

 

[Dought Man]

This would be the week for Bradford. He should get plenty of garbage time points in GB. I see a nice 3 score day for him. Now, which WR's will catch the TD's? Thats another story....

 

[Tony Reali]

I wasn't playing back in 2004/2005 but I imagine my 49ers had no one with any fantasy value. Tim Rattay, Kevan Barlow, awful WRs, mediocre TE

 

[footballnerd]

I wasn't playing back in 2004/2005 but I imagine my 49ers had no one with any fantasy value. Tim Rattay, Kevan Barlow, awful WRs, mediocre TE

Brandon Lloyd before his current self was about it.

 

[The Jerk]

I wasn't playing back in 2004/2005 but I imagine my 49ers had no one with any fantasy value. Tim Rattay, Kevan Barlow, awful WRs, mediocre TE

As I was thinking about this year's Rams, I was also trying to think back to the last near-empty fantasy roster. Certainly those 49ers apply. I think the Browns and pre-Warner Cardinals also had some very low-value fantasy rosters around that time or maybe even after, but SF is a good call.

 

[The Jerk]

Another strong candidate for fantasy wasteland...

2007 Dolphins

No individual player exceeded 2 TDs receiving, 4 TDs rushing or 6 TDs passing. Just brutal.

 

[doeseatplace]

Ahem. Seattle, 2011

In our 16 team league (QB, 2RB, 3WR, TE, K, TD), Seahwak players have only sniffed the starting lineup 8 times over 5 weeks. No 'hawks were started at all in week 3

Lynch has started 4 times, Rice once, Zach Miller once (and was then promptly cut) and Tarvaris and Forsett once each due to byes

Awful

 

[Trizzler]

I fail to see how Seattle can be considered a fantasy wasteland considering their performance over the past three weeks. Yeah, things started out pretty badly in the emerald city, but Rice and Lynch have come back to relevance pretty quickly. The only question is, how well will this offense flow with Whitehurst under center?

I'm excited about Clayton coming back soon- really think he could be a fantasy hallmark in the second half of the season. Otherwise I would agree that the Rams are worth less than a space heater in Tahiti.

 

[Tony Reali]

Another strong candidate for fantasy wasteland...

2007 Dolphins

No individual player exceeded 2 TDs receiving, 4 TDs rushing or 6 TDs passing. Just brutal.

Cleo Lemon, Samkon Gado, Jessie ChatmanJesus.

 

[FantasyTrader]

I'm not seeing it. Say what you will about Danny Amendola but he is very adept at running short/intermediate routes and he's sure-handed. OC Pat Shurmur's recipe for success last year was an extremely scaled back passing game. He kept Bradford's decision making as a rookie to a bare minimum, limiting his options on any given play to 1 or 2 at most. This helped mask Bradford's lack of experience and the O-line's suspect pass blocking. Now he's with the Browns and it's no surprise that Colt McCoy is the 6th LEAST sacked QB through 5 weeks. There's a reason the Rams were 30th in the league last year at 6.0 yards per attempt.

In comparison, McDaniels' scheme is much more complex and places a premium on getting the WR's down the field. It exposes the lack of talent at WR, the O-line lack of talent and Bradford's inexperience. Bradford is the most sacked and most hit QB in the league on a per game basis right now, ahead of even Jay Cutler who just last week was weeping publicly about how much he's running for his life.

This is a system issue for the Rams and it's not getting solved this season. They need more talent on the O-line and WR.

 

[The Jerk]

Another strong candidate for fantasy wasteland...

2007 Dolphins

No individual player exceeded 2 TDs receiving, 4 TDs rushing or 6 TDs passing. Just brutal.

Cleo Lemon, Samkon Gado, Jessie ChatmanJesus.

I'm thinking Ronnie Brown was a good play until he got injured around game 7. After that, there was just nothing.

 

[The Jerk]

Ahem. Seattle, 2011In our 16 team league (QB, 2RB, 3WR, TE, K, TD), Seahwak players have only sniffed the starting lineup 8 times over 5 weeks. No 'hawks were started at all in week 3Lynch has started 4 times, Rice once, Zach Miller once (and was then promptly cut) and Tarvaris and Forsett once each due to byesAwful

It's not pretty there, either. No one in Seattle ranks as high as Steven Jackson, but I would say that Rice is a credible WR3 in a 12+ team league and Lynch is a solid bye-week filler. Still, you're right that Seattle gives the Rams some pretty good competition here for least relevant fantasy team.

 

[BearDown54]

how about 2004 bears when our QBs was immortals such as chad hutchinson, craig krenzel and jonathan quinn?

 

[The Sniper]

There is a lot of hope for Sam Bradford and Danario Alexander. Both are probably in your free agent pool. I think they really start throwing the ball well after this past bye week. Definitely worth a shot as I think you'll see vast improvement vs. GB this week already.

 

[Kitrick Taylor]

There is a lot of hope for Sam Bradford and Danario Alexander. Both are probably in your free agent pool. I think they really start throwing the ball well after this past bye week. Definitely worth a shot as I think you'll see vast improvement vs. GB this week already.

I wouldn't count on the Packers secondary performing as poorly as they did in the first few games. They really tightened things up against ATL, and there is plenty of talent there. They were one of the very best secondaries in the league last year.

 

[SDslug]

Hopefully with an easier second half schedule some fantasy value can be found.

- Bradford Owner

 

[fightingillini]

Hopefully with an easier second half schedule some fantasy value can be found.- Bradford Owner

STL's sched is cake in the 2nd half of the season, but I am still not convinced anyone on STL but Steven Jackson is startable in fantasy. Losing Amendola pretty much killed Bradford's value for this season.That said, bradford is the real deal and still is an intriguing keeper/dynasty prospect. If STL improves the OL, Amendola comes back healthy next year and STL goes out and gets Bradford more help at WR/TE, next year he could be a QB1 or at worst a very good QB2.

 

[TheFanatic]

I really thought that Bradford was one of those guys who could elevate those around him. He took a castoff like Clayton and made him look like a stud in 4 games after being traded after TC and the fourth preseason game. He took Amendola and turned him into mini-Welker because he was the only one who could stay healthy. I felt all he needed was average WR's that stayed healthy and he would elevate them to above average.

That doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe it's that with all the success he had last year, McD pushed his ridiculous offense on a QB, and thus a team, that's not ready for it? Maybe they can scale back the playbook and allow guys to make plays by instinct rather than have a million subroutes going through their heads? I don't know. They are painful to watch. Thank God for the RZ Channel. The only time I see the Ram's games are when one of my players are about to score on them, oh and a handful of times when they actually reach the RZ themselves....

 

[DocHolliday]

I held on to Gibson until this morning. I thought he would be OK in a PPR league since someone has to catch the Bradford passes.

I continue to keep Bradford in another league. The second half of the STL schedule does look promising.