packersfan
Footballguy
This hasn't been a good year so far for many of the elite fantasy TEs. Gates has yet to play this week but Jeremy Shockey's biggest contribution so far this season has been with his mouth and Alge Crumpler has been quiet in the early going.
So maybe it shouldn't be a surprise to see Tony Gonzalez wasting away. But wasting away he is.
It had to be frightening for Gonzalez owners to watch Damon Huard pass the ball effectively today against the Cardinals and yet rarely throw the ball Gonzalez's way. He had only two targets the entire game, making a terrific catch on one of them. In the last four seasons, Gonzalez has had two targets in a game only twice and in the previous two seasons he had four targets or less in a game four times or two per season. Counting today he's had four targets or less in two games or 50 percent of his games thus far. That's obviously well ahead of his previous performance.
In PPR leagues he's still been viable as he's on pace for 72 receptions this season. But in standard scoring leagues he's been a huge disappointment. He is now on pace for 688 receiving yards, which would be the third-lowest total of his career and his lowest total since 1998, his second season in the league.
It would be easy to explain Gonzalez's lack of involvement in the passing game if Huard was struggling. But that hasn't been the case. Huard has been playing quite well since replacing Trent Green and he had another strong game against the Cardinals with 288 passing yards and 2 TDs.
So this isn't an example of a player being victimized by a poor quarterback. This is a player who was once the top option in the Chiefs' passing game no longer being used in that capacity.
That's not to say he's going to stink repeatedly from here on out. As he showed last week (5 catches for 59 yards) he can still come up with some decent games. But we're not a quarter of the way through the Chiefs' season and of Gonzalez's 24 targets, 12 of them came in Week 1. Since then, his involvement has been wildly inconsistent with 4 targets in Week 2, 6 targets in Week 3 and only 2 targets in Week 5. He also has only 2 TDs in his last 13 games dating back to last season.
It's been a rough season for many of the elite fantasy TEs so far so maybe it isn't real surprising to see Gonzalez becoming a rather ordinary fantasy option at the moment. But that doesn't make it any easier for his owners to swallow as they now are forced to wonder if benching a future Hall of Famer may be their best fantasy option many weeks the rest of the season.
So maybe it shouldn't be a surprise to see Tony Gonzalez wasting away. But wasting away he is.
It had to be frightening for Gonzalez owners to watch Damon Huard pass the ball effectively today against the Cardinals and yet rarely throw the ball Gonzalez's way. He had only two targets the entire game, making a terrific catch on one of them. In the last four seasons, Gonzalez has had two targets in a game only twice and in the previous two seasons he had four targets or less in a game four times or two per season. Counting today he's had four targets or less in two games or 50 percent of his games thus far. That's obviously well ahead of his previous performance.
In PPR leagues he's still been viable as he's on pace for 72 receptions this season. But in standard scoring leagues he's been a huge disappointment. He is now on pace for 688 receiving yards, which would be the third-lowest total of his career and his lowest total since 1998, his second season in the league.
It would be easy to explain Gonzalez's lack of involvement in the passing game if Huard was struggling. But that hasn't been the case. Huard has been playing quite well since replacing Trent Green and he had another strong game against the Cardinals with 288 passing yards and 2 TDs.
So this isn't an example of a player being victimized by a poor quarterback. This is a player who was once the top option in the Chiefs' passing game no longer being used in that capacity.
That's not to say he's going to stink repeatedly from here on out. As he showed last week (5 catches for 59 yards) he can still come up with some decent games. But we're not a quarter of the way through the Chiefs' season and of Gonzalez's 24 targets, 12 of them came in Week 1. Since then, his involvement has been wildly inconsistent with 4 targets in Week 2, 6 targets in Week 3 and only 2 targets in Week 5. He also has only 2 TDs in his last 13 games dating back to last season.
It's been a rough season for many of the elite fantasy TEs so far so maybe it isn't real surprising to see Gonzalez becoming a rather ordinary fantasy option at the moment. But that doesn't make it any easier for his owners to swallow as they now are forced to wonder if benching a future Hall of Famer may be their best fantasy option many weeks the rest of the season.
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