Fantasy Football: Terrell Owens or Chad Ochocinco?

According to 12-team mock drafts being held on fantasyfootballcalculator, Terrell Owens is being selected in the middle-late third round, whereas Chad Ochocinco is being plucked off the board in the middle of the fourth.

Both of these trouble-makers find themselves in brand-new situations this season (Owens going to Buffalo, and Ochocinco being the main man in Cincy).

So who is going to produce the better numbers this year?

We will start with Owens (since he is being drafted first).

Last year with the Cowboys, Owens totaled 1,052 yards on 69 receptions, and also snagged ten touchdowns.  It's impressive that he was able to do this while sharing the field with such capable players as: Marion Barber, Roy Williams, and Jason Witten.

However now Owens goes from an established offense to one that is a work in progress.  Buffalo's top offensive talent, Marshawn Lynch, is suspended for the first three games of the NFL regular season because of a weapons charge from the offseason. 

This will make it easier for opposing defenses to key in on Owens, since the running game will not be a threat.  Owens does, however, have receiver Lee Evans to take away some attention, as Evans has shown that he can play as a more-than-serviceable receiver in the NFL.

But perhaps the biggest switch that Owens will have to deal with is the quarterback change.  No longer does he have trusty QB Tony Romo to throw him the ball; the new commander in chief is Trent Edwards, the third-year man out of Stanford who has flashed some, but not a ton of potential in his brief stint in the NFL.

Last year, Edwards posted decent numbers for only throwing the ball 374 times.  He garnered nearly 2,700 yards and threw 11 touchdowns with a 65.5 completion percentage but also played victim of the pass 10 times.

Edwards should though show more maturity this upcoming season though since he has had a few years to fit under his belt while seeing how the NFL operates.

My gut feeling on T.O says that his stats will regress a bit, just because of the fact that more attention will be focused on him and he has a lesser QB throwing him the ball.

Expect stats around the ballpark of 900 yards, and eight touchdowns.

And now Mr. Golden Toes.

Last season, Ochocinco caught the ball 53 time for 540 yards and four scores; a down year for him to say the least.  It is important to note though that Chad missed a total of three games during the course of the season.

Unlike Owens, Chad is remaining with the team that he had played for last season.  Also different from T.O is the fact that Chad won't be burdened with having to share a significant portion of targets to another capable receiver on the club;  (since fellow receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh was signed by the Seattle Seahawks in the offseason). 

Instead, Ochocinco now has Laveranues Coles to share the load with; which isn't all bad.  Coles will help to deflect some of the defensive attention that Ocho would be getting otherwise, since he [Coles] has shown that he can play, and play well.

But let's not kid ourselves: Coles is no Houshmandzadeh.  He will not garner the same amount of looks that a player of Housh's caliber would.  As a result, look for Ochocinco to receive the leftovers.

Perhaps the biggest reason why Ochocinco suffered such a miserable season was because his quarterback, Veteran Carson Palmer was out for 12 games.  12.  That's 75 percent of the season people.  Would you expect Reggie Wayne to produce consistent numbers if Jim Sorgi was throwing to him?  No, so why should we hold Chad to it?

I believe that he is being undervalued since people just remember the[crappy] stats that he put up, and not the fact that he had a backup throwing to him almost all season.

With Palmer back and healthy, expect Ochocinco's numbers to rebound to their normal lines; lines of- 1,000 yards and ten touchdowns.

And for my final opinion, I would say that I would rather have Chad Ochocinco.  He has a better QB throwing to him, and the Bengals will be behind more than the Bills will be, forcing them to throw the ball more often, (which will result in more receptions for Chad).

However, either represent a fine No. 2 option for your fantasy team.