Fantasy Football: Wide Receivers Recap (the Bad)

At the end of every season, we like to go back and recap how the players at each fantasy football position fared. And as with every season, there’s always the good, the bad, and, of course, the downright ugly ones.

In this second installment of the second part of our yearly "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly" series, we’ll take a look at the BAD wide receivers from a fantasy football point of view. Some of these wide outs were burned by high expectations, others were plagued by injuries, and still others just endured too many cold spells to be considered anything better than bad.

To find out who these wideouts are, simply read on.

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1. Reggie Wayne (Indianapolis Colts)

2007 marked the passing of the torch in Indy as Reggie Wayne finally supplanted Marvin Harrison as the team's top wide receiver option. While Wayne maintained that distinction in 2008, it was more due to Harrison's poor play than Wayne's strong play.

Going into the season ranked as the No. 2 fantasy wide receiver by the majority of fantasy experts, Wayne finished the season on the outside looking in at the top 10, winding up No. 13.

Hauling in 22 fewer passes than he did in 2007, Wayne saw his yardage drop from 1,510 yards to 1,145 yards, while his TDs fell from 10 to six. What was even more disappointing for Wayne's owners was that the wide out, a near certainty for double digits in 2007, had six outings of less than five fantasy points.

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2. Randy Moss (New England Patriots)

It's not too often you find a player who finishes in the top 10 at their position occupying a spot on a list titled, "the Bad," but this list is all about being a disappointment, and despite top 10 numbers in 2008, Moss still qualifies.

Coming off a season in which he set the single season record for receiving touchdowns with 23, Moss was overwhelmingly the first wide receiver taken off the board in fantasy drafts last season, often times during the first round.

Owners may not have expected a repeat of his record breaking season, but they did expect Moss' production to rival that of the top tier running backs.

Sitting 55 points behind top wide out, Larry Fitzgerald, at season's end, Moss's production wasn't even on par with the top tier receivers as the Patriots' wide receiver saw a dip in his numbers across the board, going from 1,493 receiving yards and 23 TDs in 2007 to 1,008 receiving yards and 11 TDs in 2008.

Obviously, Moss deserves some slack as a big reason for his decline had to do with the fact that Tom Brady was lost for the year within the first eight minutes of the season, but that doesn't ease the disappointment that all those who took Moss in round one dealt with during 2008.

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3. Marques Colston (New Orleans Saints)

It's hard to fault a guy for a down year when his disappointing numbers are largely the product of missed time due to an injury, but that's the case here with Colston. The Saints' wide receiver, a relative unknown when drafted out of Hofstra three seasons ago, had started off his career in stupendous fashion with two straight 1,000+ yard seasons.

That production propelled him into the pre-season top 10 among wide receivers. Sadly, for Colston's owners, 2008 quickly became derailed as Colston suffered a thumb injury in Week One that kept him out of action until Week Seven.

Colston tried to make up for lost time, posting six double-digit performances in his last nine games, but making up for five missed games is a tall order.

In the end, Colston had his first sub-1,000 yard year, notching 760 yards in 11 games.

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4. Lee Evans (Buffalo Bills)

Evans may be the most frustrating fantasy wide receiver out there. Despite a solid skill set that includes speed and fairly reliable hands, Evans just can't seem to put it all together for a full season.

This is perhaps something all fantasy owners should have learned by now; however, when Evans goes off for 11+ fantasy points in four straight weeks, a feat he pulled off during Weeks Four to Eight during the season (Week Six was the Bills' bye), it's hard not to get excited about the possibilities for this 27-year-old receiver.

Still, more often than not that excitement turns to disappointment, which was the case again in 2008. While Evans did hit the 1,000 yard plateau and did put together those 4 straight 11+ point efforts, he managed just three TDs on the year and only two more double digit affairs.

It may be better next season to let someone else get their hopes dashed by the Bills' wide out.

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5. Santonio Holmes (Pittsburgh Steelers)

The 131 receiving yards and TD that Santonio Holmes had in Super Bowl XLIII to earn himself MVP honors was what his owners expected from him on a somewhat regular basis during the season when they drafted him.

Unfortunately, Holmes didn't deliver. Following a strong sophomore campaign in 2007 in which he went for 942 yards and eight scores, fantasy owners were salivating at the possibilities for Holmes' third year, traditionally a breakout year for wideouts.

Someone, though, forgot to mention that to Holmes as the wide receiver regressed instead of moving forward. Not only did Holmes finish with three less end-zone trips in 2008 than he had in 2007, but he also was only able to tally 821 receiving yards, the lowest total of his short career.

Was Holmes' Super Bowl performance an indication that Holmes will rebound in 2009 or is he just setting things up to disappoint fantasy owners yet again? That's something only time can tell.

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6. Jerricho Cotchery (New York Jets)

920 yards and 12 TDs in just 13 games. Those were Greg Jennings' numbers in 2007, and the reason so many fantasy owners were ecstatic to land Jerricho Cotchery in 2008. With Cotchery cut out of the same mold as Jennings, many felt that the arrival of Brett Favre to the Jets would thrust Cotchery to the next level among fantasy wide receivers.

While Cotchery did post respectable numbers for 2008 with 858 receiving yards and five TDs, they represented a step back for the Jets' wide out rather than a step forward.

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7. TJ Houshmandzadeh (Cincinnati Bengals)

While writing this article, a debate arose regarding whether or not to include Housh here or on "the Ugly" list. After all, the Bengals' wide receiver was a top 10 option heading into the season and didn't even manage to finish in the top 30 among wide receivers.

Despite that, we gave Housh the benefit of the doubt and decided to place him among "the Bad."

Why you ask? Well, while we may be biased due to our love for his name, we just didn't feel it was fair to truly punish Housh for so many circumstances that were out of his control. It wasn't his fault Carson Palmer missed so much of the season, and it wasn't his fault that the Bengals' had zero running game for most of the year.

In fact, the 904 yards and four TDs he had in 2008 were a bit impressive considering all that was going on around him.

So, while his numbers were down, Housh still deserves some credit for not mailing it in (cough cough Chad Johnson cough) and providing his fantasy owners with some production for the majority of the season.

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