Why Eric Mangini Is a Fantasy Killer | NFL Fantasy Football Rankings

I once heard a story about the great basketball player Michael Jordan and his belief about riding the fence.

A friend of Jordan's had two different brands of basketball shoes (Nike and another company not to be named), and Jordan went into his friends room and ripped up the brand of shoe that wasn't Nike.

Ok, I didn't tell that story very well, but the reason why Jordan ripped up the other brand of shoe was because he wanted to stress the importance to his friend that you should never "sit on the fence" when making decisions about loyalty.

As we all know, Air Jordan was a promoter of Nike's basketball shoe, and once he made the decision to work with Nike, he stuck to their company for basketball shoes.

I say all that to point out that Browns' head coach Eric Mangini is definitely not like Jordan as he can't make a solid decision about his players.

This past week, fantasy football owners paid the ultimate price in the fantasy playoffs as they couldn't trust using Jerome Harrison because of Mangini's crazy decision making.

Not only did fantasy owners not have Harrison in the lineup, but they probably had Browns' rookie running back Chris Jennings starting instead.

Hey, What Happened?

Jennings had a strong game against the Steelers last week, and it only made sense that the Browns would want to see more from the rookie to see what he could do for the future.

Harrison is a talented runner but, unfortunately, has been in Mangini's dog house for just about the entire season.

Because of this situation (and that fact that Mangini was talking about using Joshua Cribbs as a running back this week), I'm sure no fantasy football owners would have started Harrison that had a sane mind.

Unfortunately, for fantasy owners that had Harrison and Jennings, Mangini did decided to switch gears and use Harrison as a feature back.

Harrison went on to rush 34 times for 286 yards and three rushing touchdowns. This was by far the best fantasy production of any running back this week and would have put many fantasy owners in the Super Bowl.

In the end, this was a terrific game for Harrison and was the right move for Mangini to make this week as Harrison played great.

Justice is Coming

Fortunately, fantasy owners should see Mangini get his in the end and receive some payback for this coaches flip-flopping.

It is this kind of decision making like not starting Harrison for so long and not starting Brady Quinn all year that is going to get Mangini fired this offseason.

Not only has Mangini failed to start his best options, but he also traded away his only two proven star players this year as well. In the NFL, you can't flip flop like this and let go of your only star players.

I'm sure new general manager to be Mike Holmgrem will say in the press that he is going to evaluate Mangini but in reality, this head coach is gone.

Personally, I didn't fall victim to the Harrison conundrum in any of my leagues this year, but I do feel the pain of fantasy owners that are reeling from this past week's outcome.

In the end, all I can say is Mangini sucks and is a horrible coach who overthinks decisions way too much.

NFL Fantasy Football Player Rankings writer Sean E. Douglas: fantasy-info.com