Fantasy Football Draft Busts

As 2010 quickly comes to a close, we take a look back at the biggest draft busts of the 2010 fantasy football season. One last reminder of a team that could have been. One more chance to remember mocking our friends on draft night claiming our team was the real deal. We always think we have the best team on draft night and then the unexpected happens as soon as the season starts. This uncertainty/feeling of accomplishment is what helps us gain the strength to endure another season in which you lose to your friend who knows nothing about football and picked his team based on names that sounded like Star Wars characters. And now onto the list:

Drum roll please….

QB

Kevin Kolb

Projected Stats: 4,000 yards passing, 25 TD’s, 20 Int’s

Actual Stats: 1,035 yards passing, 6 TD’s and 4 Int’s

Kolb was a top 10 QB coming into the 2010 season. Injuries, ineffective play, and Michael Vick’s MVP breakout year kept Kolb on the bench for the season and back into fantasy irrelevance. Missing on a QB so badly typically tanks your season unless you of course handcuffed Kolb with Vick.

Tony Romo

Projected Stats: 4,567 yards passing, 28 TD’s and 15 Int’s

Actual Stats: 1,605 yards passing, 11 TD’s and 7 Int’s

Romo was a top 5 QB coming into the season and could not quite get it going on a consistent basis before losing the rest of the season to a shoulder injury. Romo’s interceptions were on pace to land him on this list regardless. The Cowboys started to actually win some games once Romo exited with his injury. Rumors of a late season comeback made him an interesting waiver wire pick, but it never panned out.

Brett Favre

Projected Stats: 4,182 yards passing, 30 TD’s and 12 Int’s

Actual Stats: 2,509 yards passing, 11 TD’s and 19 Int’s

Favre made believers out of us all after he had one of the better statistical seasons of his career in 2009. Favre was a top 10 QB coming into the season and quickly showed his age. Favre threw for over 300 yards just once and managed to throw multiple TD’s in a game just twice. The gunslinger/warrior mentality of his kept hope alive as we went into each week hoping he could put together one last great game with the talented supporting cast that surrounded him. Getting injured did more good than bad for most owners as we no longer had the affects of the Favre mystique clouding our judgement.

RB

Ryan Grant

Projected Stats: 1208 yards rushing, 9 TD’s

Actual Stats: 45 yards rushing, 0 TD’s

Granted, Grant lost his season to injury in week 1, but odds are you spent an early pick on him and he got you 45 yards for the entire season. Green Bay is loaded with weapons and 2010 could have been special for Grant. He should fall a few rounds in next year’s draft, but should have no issue bouncing back to previous form making him a nice sleeper pick.

DeAngelo Williams

Projected Stats: 1,179 yards rushing, 9 TD’s

Actual Stats: 361 yards rushing, 1 TD

Williams was actually ranked slightly above Grant in the preseason projections due to his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. However, he could not quite get it going this year failing to rush for over 100 yards in any game this season. 306 yards and 1 TD over 6 games is not what you’d expect from a top 10 RB especially one in a contract year.

Shon Greene

Projected Stats: 1,210 yards rushing, 10 TD’s

Actual Stats: 766 yards rushing, 2 TD’s

Shon Greene finally got his shot as the full time back to start the season and just as quickly took a seat due to the reemergence of LT. Greene’s lone 100 yard rushing game of the season came against Buffalo and their league worst defense against the run. The lack of TD’s is the most surprising, Greene is a bruising downhill running back and the Jet’s lack of confidence in him at the goal line is a huge red flag.The Jet offensive line is too good to not elevate the projections of their running backs so expect the same level of uncertainty going into next year’s draft.

WR

Randy Moss

Projected Stats: 93 receptions, 1,398 yards receiving and 12 TD’s

Actual Stats: 27 receptions, 375 yards and 5 TD’s

The most disturbing thing about this season is that Tennessee picked up Moss and does not even thrown the ball to him. Moss was the second WR off the board in most drafts and has 9 catches over the last 9 games of this season. Having little production from a top pick is hard to recover from in most cases. Side note, the biggest impact Moss had on this season was leaving the Patriots. The Patriot offense rose to a new level once he was gone spreading the ball around in their dink n dunk style of offense.

Brandon Marshall

Projected Stats: 104 receptions, 1,247 yards receiving and 11 TD’s

Actual Stats: 81 receptions, 917 yards receiving and 3 TD’s

Marshall was supposed to excel after getting out of Denver. Marshall did not catch his second TD until week 14 of the season and by then most owners had given up on him. Marshall has turned it on as of late posting 21 receptions for 208 yards and a TD in his last 2 games, but it is a little too late for that. Expect more of the same in 2011 with no viable QB currently on the roster in Miami.

Steve Smith

Projected Stats: 70 receptions, 1,170 yards receiving and 8 TD’s

Actual Stats: 46 receptions, 554 yards receiving and 2 TD’s

Smith’s 2 TD’s came in the first two weeks of the season and took our expectations even higher. The next 15 games saw him catch more than 5 balls just once, that game also featured his season high 85 receiving yards. Carolina is a mess at the moment and has locked up the #1 overall pick in next year’s draft. Smith’s value may increase a little should they draft a QB. However, I would not take more than a late round flier on him at this point. Jimmy Clausen is looking more and more like the modern day Browning Nagle.