Pierre Garcon: Updated Fantasy Profile After Poor Showing in Week 11

Fantasy owners may now safely move away from Pierre Garcon in 2012. The fantasy football appeal of the Washington Redskins wide receiver this season is based almost entirely on one quarter of healthy NFL playing time spent catching passes from rookie quarterback sensation Robert Griffin III.

Garcon caught four passes for 109 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter of Week 1’s matchup between the Redskins and the New Orleans Saints.

That projects to 256 catches, 6,976 yards and 64 touchdowns—totals that would obviously shatter NFL records in each receiving category and, of course, never happen. Set aside the fact that we now know that the Saints defense is historically terrible in terms of yards allowed, and Garcon’s Week 1 performance was still likely to be his best fantasy game of the year…before he injured his foot.

Garcon’s foot injury is, unsurprisingly, the primary reason that he has been limited or inactive for each subsequent Redskins game since Week 1.

Aside from Week 1, he has totaled seven catches for 49 yards.

Interestingly, Garcon was second on the team in targets in Week 11 with three looks from RGIII. He caught all three of them—but totaled five yards. His hands are fine, but he’s not going to run for too many yards on a bad foot.

Season-ending surgery is still on the table.

Griffin and the Redskins offense seem to be getting along just fine without him this year. On Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, RGIII tossed touchdown passes to four different receivers—each on the respective receiver’s lone target of the game.

Garcon’s fantasy value is more prevalent in keeper leagues, assuming he retains his spot atop the WR depth chart in 2013. Even if he continues to play and avoids surgery this year, it’s hard to trust a guy who hasn’t had a big fantasy day in over two months.

Now that the bye weeks are over, fantasy rosters should largely be comprised of players that could conceivably end up in starting lineups. Benches in seasonal formats, therefore, should include handcuffs and players with great matchups in a given week—guys that could help a fantasy team win games.

Garcon can’t do that if you don’t trust him on a week-to-week basis. From a fantasy perspective, he hasn’t earned that trust in 2012.

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