Fantasy Football Rankings 2012: Most Overrated Player at Every Skill Position

Some of the biggest fantasy football disappointments come from the overrating of stars based on their past performance or on some unbridled “potential” that says they are going to breakout this season.

For one reason or another, people keep drinking the kool-aid of these one-hit wonders or has-beens and I can’t even begin to understand it.

Let’s take a look at some of these overrated guys you should avoid for reasons I’ll delve into in the following paragraphs.

Quarterback: Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles

Despite his allure, Vick has not lived up to the high amounts of praise he received upon his re-emergence onto the NFL scene after doing hard-time crimes against dogs.

He’s ranked as just the seventh quarterback by ESPN.com rankings, but even that is too high.

His inability to stay healthy and build consistency through continued repetitions is concerning. So is the shaky offensive line that is in front of him.

If Vick can stay upright and doesn’t spend the majority of his time running for his life, I’ll eat my words, but I don’t think that will be the case in 2012.

Running Back: Darren McFadden, Oakland Raiders

Run DMC has proven to be a dynamic running back when healthy. The Raiders didn’t retain Michael Bush, who is now in Oakland and he will be expected to be the workhorse for the banged up Oakland Raiders.

Speaking of banged up, McFadden has yet to sustain a major injury in preseason. While that may be encouraging to you now, he has only played in 20 games out of a possible 32 during the past two seasons.

Call me skeptical, but until he can go through the majority of a season in one piece, I’m going to keep away.

Wide Receiver: Greg Jennings, Green Bay Packers

While Jennings is the team’s No. 1 wide receiver, he wasn’t even the best pass catcher on his own team a season ago.

Aaron Rodgers is a prolific passer and that certainly helps Jennings’ stock, but to what end? Jennings as a top five wide receiver is delusional and worthy of some pretty heavy criticism.

Jermichael Finley and Jordy Nelson are going to share a large amount of the load of the Packers offense. While there is much to go around, don’t count on Jennings cashing in his opportunities and becoming a top 10 receiver.

If you were to say top 15, I may agree, but that is about his true value at this point.

Tight End: Tony Gonzalez, Atlanta Falcons

Tony Gonzalez has been on the decline since he arrived in Atlanta. Somehow, he still managed consistent production last season and was the fourth leading tight end in standard scoring leagues.

Considering the likely emergence of Julio Jones, I don’t think he will duplicate that performance in 2012.

Gonzo doesn’t have the gas in the tank to be the workhorse of the Falcons' passing game. He’s got some goal line and first down situations left in him and will be a factor, but unless he’s scoring touchdowns, you may want to look elsewhere for your tight end.

There are better, more consistent, options in the later rounds than taking a stab at Gonzo because of his name early on.

Mike Hoag is a Trends and Traffic writer for Bleacher Report and also covers the Cleveland Browns and the NFL for the site. Follow him on Twitter @BigHoagowski.