Top 2011 Fantasy Football Busts

Number two in our three part series involving sleepers, busts and a preseason player of the year, bust are yet another facet of the fantasy game that you must be able accurately predict. Well, as accurate as possible anyway. There is no way to correctly pick all of them. Only I can accurately predict all of them. Avoid the guys I have listed. Tom and Andy hold their own.

I’m just kidding (sort of.) Without further ado, here are the top 2011 fantasy football busts.

Position	Tom Schriner	Brandon Berg	Andy Erickson
QB	Michael Vick	Michael Vick	Michael Vick
RB	Arian Foster	Peyton Hillis	Peyton Hillis
WR	Plaxico Burress	Brandon Lloyd	Sidney Rice
TE	Jermichael Finley	Owen Daniels	Tony Gonzalez
DEF	Chicago Bears	New York Jets	New York Giants

Tom Schriner – Fantasy Football Junkie

Vick is going to be a first rounder in almost every league this year, with good reason but he could so easily be a bust. The way he plays is just reckless and will most certainly miss a few games because of it. Don’t get me wrong, it will be amazing to own him while he’s on the field but don’t be shocked if he goes down in week 2 with a broken collarbone.

I really hope Arian Foster avoids having a bad year, but this is a prediction, and really good, steady running backs are hard to find. It was one year. Can he have another successful year? Sure he can. But am I drafting him in the top 5, no I’m not.

Brandon Berg

I’d love to play devil’s advocate, but no one comes close to my doubts with Vick. These guys explain it pretty well, but I’ll leave you with the thought that Vick only averaged ranking about 8th in total points in the pre-Philly era and can be counted on being hurt in the playoff weeks of the season when you need him most. Anyways, Peyton Hillis wore down as the season progressed after a grueling 270 carries and has a history of injury problems. Last year he played in all 16 games, but was hampered by injuries in the second half and clearly showed it.

Brandon Lloyd screams bust. He came out of nowhere last year to become a fantasy superstar at age 29. Now he’s 30 and will likely have Tebow as his QB for the majority of the season. Lloyd is going to disappear from week to week, obviously landing him short of the hype that has been handed to him.

Andy Erickson

In many leagues, Vick is going in the first round and sometimes even the first quarterback taken off the board. What many people are forgetting when seeing his mouth-watering numbers for fantasy owners is that he struggled down the stretch when teams started figuring out how to defend him. In the first six games of the regular season, Vick threw for 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions. In the last six games, Vick still had 10 touchdowns, but six interceptions. He needs one more solid year without an injury before I’d take him in the first or second round.

Peyton Hillis was quite a waiver wire pickup last season with 13 total touchdowns, over 1,000 rushing yards and close to 500 receiving. Among the reasons I believe he won’t repeat; the Browns have installed a west-coast offense, Montario Hardesty wasn’t drafted to sit on the bench and will see more carries and he is on the Madden cover (if you believe in the curse.) Even worse, during many league’s playoffs last year, the last five weeks, he had 272 yards rushing and not a single touchdown.

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