Fantasy Football: Why It's Time to Sell High on New York Jets' RB Shonn Greene

The numbers you see before you are not the elements of a mirage: Shonn Greene rushed 32 times for 161 yards and three touchdowns on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.

We’ve most likely seen the best fantasy outing that Greene is going to produce this season.

There are two lessons to be learned from this performance. The first is that the Colts can make any running back a must-start option in short order.

The second is that it’s time to sell high on Greene—if you can convince one of your league-mates that he will continue his production.

He won’t.

If even by the simple magnitude of his performance this week, it is an easy call to say he won’t repeat his Week 6 numbers anytime in the near future. His schedule dictates the same thing. Greene’s next month of football consists of matchups with the New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins and Seattle Seahawks.

The New York Jets have a bye in Week 9.

Heading into Week 6, those three defenses all ranked in the top quarter of NFL teams in terms of stopping running backs from producing fantasy points.

As for the defense that he did all of this damage to, the Colts have been getting smashed in the running game all season.

Fantasy fireworks would have been a predictable situation had Greene not been so terrible in the last four games: He’s carried the ball 49 times for a measly 123 total rushing yards—in a month.

That’s the Greene you want to avoid for your own fantasy team.

He received 32 touches (all rushing attempts) in Week 6, which would be encouraging for most backs. But New York was leading for the majority of the game. Greene definitely did his part to help maintain that lead, but tougher fronts are ahead for the Jets runner.

Now’s a perfect time to jump ship on owning Greene in 2012.

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