Fantasy Football 2012: Potential Busts You Should Look to Deal Early

The art of selling high and buying low can win you your fantasy football league. The beginning of the season is the best time to utilize this strategy, as owners tend to put too much stock in opening season performances. 

It may be difficult to part with a player on a hot start, but these players come with massive bust potential and should be the ideal "sell-high" candidate that could bring you nice compensation in a trade thanks to their name recognition and the likelihood of early success.

Michael Vick

Mike Vick is the ultimate boom-or-bust pick. When healthy, he can be the top scorer in all of fantasy football. When injured, he's not going to do your team a whole lot of good. 

If you have Vick on your team, chances are you either believe that Vick is going to be able to stay on the field for the majority of the season or you wanted to grab and elite quarterback and Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford were gone. 

If you're of the latter train of thought, you may be able to get one of those guys after all. 

Vick has the fortunate distinction of playing the Cleveland Browns in the first week. The Browns were good against the pass last season, but that was thanks in large part to opponents running the ball at will and sitting on leads. Expect Vick to come out and post huge numbers in the first week of the season.

Shrewd owners will use the opportunity to trade Vick as his injury risk outweighs the potential greatness in any given week.

Andre Johnson

Remember when Andre Johnson looked like typical Andre Johnson for the first three weeks of 2011, then tore a hamstring and sat out the vast majority of the fantasy football season?

Johnson owners from last season certainly do. While predicting an injury like that to happen again isn't a sure thing, it does seem as though Johnson is struggling to remain healthy.

Johnson missed a part of camp in July with a strained groin and has been held out of some preseason action due to a rib injury. Johnson has the potential to be one of the best receivers in the NFL, but is a huge risk until he proves that he can stay healthy. However, it's important to keep in mind that he's 31 and it's possible his age is playing a role in his sudden "injury prone" status.

As one of the most recognizable names in fantasy football, Johnson should be a valuable trade asset if he puts up good numbers early on.

Jermichael Finley

In general, it's good to have anyone that Aaron Rodgers is having on your team, but Finley may be a bit overrated as an elite tight end. 

His touchdown total from last season (eight) was inflated by a three touchdown game against the Chicago Bears and was far less productive with his 96 targets last season than many of the other Packers options.

Finley is among the most elite tight ends within the reality of actual football but there are simply too many mouths to feed in the Packers offense for him to be with Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski as the best tight ends in the game.

Rodgers is the best in the league at getting the ball to the hot receiver. The first time Finley has a monster game (like his 26-point performance against Chicago in Week 3) is a great time to trade him because those big games will be few and far between.