2012 Pre-Season Fantasy Football WR Rankings-  07/30/12

 

 

 

Dawgmatica’s 2012 Pre-Season Fantasy WR Player Rankings

 

 

QB Rankings  RB Rankings  TE Rankings

 

 

1.               Calvin Johnson (Det) – The things Calvin Johnson can do on a football field are far beyond normal human capabilities and were fully on display throughout the 2011 season. He’s always had the talent to put up Randy Moss in-his-prime-like fantasy numbers, but last season was the first time it all came together for him…and he won’t lose a step come 2012. From what I’ve heard, Megatron took the offseason to get both stronger and faster than he was the year before (if that’s even possible) in an effort to stay above the bar he set for himself last season when he scored a touchdown in 11 of 16 games, with two TDs in five of them. 2011 saw him put up 96 catches, 1,681 yards, 16 TDs and eight 100-yard games. Can he do even better this season? Well I’m not going to bet against him, that’s for sure.

2.               Julio Jones (Atl) – Was this kid really a rookie last season? It sure didn’t look like it. Jones, though only 23 years old, is probably the second-most physically imposing wide receiver in the league next to Megatron. Like Calvin, he’s an absolute freak of an athlete complete with every possible intangible known to man. In just his first season of play, I’ve already seen him make a few catches that I’m not completely sure even Megatron would have made. He’s simply that good. In 2011, Jones had five 100-yard games and eight TDs in just 13 contests, numbers he might actually be able to DOUBLE this upcoming season due to a few quick points:  1) Roddy White lines up on the other side, so Jones will NEVER see a double-team. 2) Jones saw 94 targets in just 13 games, a number that should rise immensely with Falcons looking to throw the ball a lot more this season. 3) As fate would have it, the Falcons have one of the five easiest schedules in the league against the pass this year.  Basically, even though Jones only has one season under his belt, his fantasy potential is through the roof and you really don’t want to miss out on it.

3.               Brandon Marshall (Chi) – When Denver broke up the Cutler-to-Marshall duo following the 2008 season, I felt a bit cheated that we wouldn’t be able witness one of the best QB/WR combos in the league for the next decade or so, but it seems my disappointment has been rectified. I wouldn’t say that Marshall was wasting away down in Miami, but you can bet his talents will be put to much better use now that he’s dressed in a new uniform and back with one of his best buddies on the Bears. The scheme he’ll be playing within under new offensive coordinator, Mike Tice, will bring out the best between Marshall and Cutler and should get Brandon back up into the top two or three in targets this season (seventh in 2011). If that happens, which it should, Marshall will end up with his fourth career 100-catch season and quite possibly his second with double-digit TDs. Don’t fall asleep on this kid just because he’s had some problems the last few years…

4.               Larry Fitzgerald (Ari) – The man with the best hands in the entire league is still the most consistent landing in the Top-5 in fantasy points five of the last seven years. Even with the Cardinals annually running a carnival carousel at quarterback, Fitz was able to put up the third-most yards (1,411) in his career last season as well as his highest yards-per-catch (17.6). One of the big reasons why he’ll continue to be a big-time fantasy player in 2012 is that despite all the double- and triple-teams he’s seen over the years, his QBs never fail to target him amongst the top two or three WRs in the league. Now that Michael Floyd has been added to the Arizona WR corps (assuming he eventually wins a starting job), Fitz may actually see a little more single-coverage this season. Not that it will matter, as Larry still had six 100-yard games last season anyway.

5.               Roddy White (Atl) – When the final whistle blew, Roddy once again stood atop the league in targets (179) as he closed out 2011 with his second-straight 100-catch season and almost 1,300 yards. Even in what some might have thought to be a “down-year” for White, he was still able to garner the second-most fantasy points in his career and fifth-most in the league. In 2012, with young phenom Julio Jones lining up opposite him, White will either put up similar numbers to 2011 or should actually be able to out-perform them seeing as how the Falcons will not only be passing the ball more, but also have one of the easiest schedules in the league this season. Plus, besides all the stats you know you’ll be getting, Roddy also hasn’t missed a game in his seven-year career and is as dependable as it gets in fantasy these days.

6.               Percy Harvin (Min) – If he wasn’t a Jack-of-all-Trades, there’s no way I’d have him near this high in my rankings. However, last season Harvin had 52 rushes to go with his 87 receptions, numbers which equate to WR1 quality without a doubt. This season, we may see even MORE of Percy Harvin considering the hampered condition of Adrian Peterson and the lack of firepower surrounding him at wide receiver (especially with rookie Greg Childs going down for the year with two torn Patellar tendons). Those 345 yards and two rushing TDs might look like child’s play in 2012 if the Vikings want to win a few games. Either way, Harvin’s eight TDs in the final nine games of 2011 may be a teller of what’s to come with him, so if one of the most electric players in the league happens to drop in your draft a little bit, know you’ll be grabbing one of the biggest upside guys in the NFL later than most fantasy owners might think he should go.

7.               Jordy Nelson (GB) – Will Jordy Nelson put up 15 touchdowns again? No, probably not… but then again, in this domination station known as the Green Bay Packers offense, he just might. When we get down to the nitty-gritty of the underestimated white boy from Manhattan, Kansas, here are the facts:  He’s big (6’3”, 217-pounds), he’s fast (4.45 in the 40), he has great hands, he’s tough, he runs great routes, and he’s in a high-powered offense that thrives on passing the ball. So what’s not to like? Well, his consistency is a little below standard due to Green Bay having too many options in their offense to go to, but when he and Rodgers are on, Nelson is a Top-3 guy.

8.               A.J. Green (Cin) – If it weren’t for the display Cam Newton put on as a rookie last season, A.J. Green would have been talked about a lot more than he was. Not that he went unnoticed or anything, but a talent like Green doesn’t come along all that often which means he SHOULD have been recognized as much as Newton… if not more so. The kid is so far beyond his years that opposing defenses will HAVE TO double-team him and yet, I guarantee he’ll STILL beat them on a regular basis. He’s just that good. His hands are already close to being the stickiest in the league and with his 6’4”-frame, he can go up and get a pass with the best of them. Cinci has a tough schedule and is in a tough division for sure, but Green’s talent-level is already high enough to overcome it.

9.               Victor Cruz (NYG) – Victor Cruz won’t be sneaking up on anybody in 2012, but that doesn’t mean he won’t succeed either. I have a real tough time believing he’ll repeat a line of 82-1,536-9 and stay in the top-five fantasy receivers, but the kid WAS spectacular last year, wasn’t he. Circus catch after circus catch, he was one of the brightest spots of an awesome 2011 Giants season. Lightning could strike twice with this kid, but if Nicks stays healthy, it’s really, really hard to sustain two top-flight fantasy receivers on one team. Both of them will produce at a high rate, but I honestly like Cruz’s big-play ability and demand for the ball a bit more than Nicks’ right now. We’ll see how it shakes out, but my money’s on the Meadowlands Magician.

10.           Wes Welker (NE) – Does the Slot Machine keep getting better, or has Brady just been going to him more and more. It’s probably a little bit of both, actually, but things could change a little bit this season. First of all, Welker will be a Top-15 receiver in the end as long as he stays healthy—of this I have no doubts. However, with RB Stevan Ridley up-and-coming and WR Brandon Lloyd added to the mix, Welker may not see the same love that he has been over the last handful of seasons. In fact, I’m going to bet that Welker ends up exactly where he did back in 2007 when Randy Moss was still in a Patriots uniform and Josh McDaniels was running the offense (as he is again). That season, Welker had 112 catches on 145 targets for 1,175 yards and eight TDs, good for the tenth-most fantasy points in the league. As my WR1, I’d take it.

 

 

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11.           Brandon Lloyd (NE) – The fact that he’ll be playing with Tom Brady alone makes him a player to reckon with in 2012. It will be tough to repeat the numbers he put up in 2010 in Denver (77-1,448-11) when he led the league in fantasy points, but if he can dominate as much as he did with Kyle Orton under center that season, who’s to say he can’t do it with the Stetson Man? Lloyd and Brady have already established a nice rapport together this off-season and since Brady can't stop raving about his skills, I wouldn't put it past the new Patriot to jump into the Top-10 WRs by the end of the season. The fact of the matter is that this is a connect-the-dots type of situation:  Lloyd’s best season came in a Josh McDaniels offensive system…Josh McDaniels is now the OC for the Patriots…Randy Moss’ best season came in a Josh McDaniels offensive system…Brandon Lloyd will be taking on Moss’ position within that system. You see where I’m going with this?

12.           Greg Jennings (GB) – Jennings has a couple of things going for him this season despite all the up-and-coming talent on the team. First of all, let it be known that this is a Contract Year for Jennings, which is always a good thing when drafting a fantasy player. Second, he is still Aaron Rodgers’ favorite target as he had more targets than anyone else on the team while playing in just 13 games. Third, with Jordy Nelson exploding onto the scene in 2011, Jennings won’t see as much defensive attention as he did most of last season. He might not catch as many TDs as Nelson or maybe not put up as many yards, but he’ll still be a stud no matter how you look at it.

13.           Hakeem Nicks (NYG) – Nicks has all the skills to be a fantasy WR1 for your team, but it’s gotten to the point where his pile-up of injuries is starting to bother me. Add to that a young stud like Victor Cruz stealing away targets and Nicks ends up down here in the Lucky-13 slot. Could he put up Top-10 numbers in 2012? Absolutely, and in fact, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest IF he happens to stay healthy. However, a broken right foot in OTAs this offseason doesn’t give me the confidence enough to put him up where his talent SHOULD slot him. I’d have no problem with anyone taking him as a Top-10 receiver, but the frustration and stress likely to come with his being your WR1 are just too much to handle.

14.           Andre Johnson (Hou) – Listen, I still love Andre and believe his skills still put him up there with the top four or five receivers in the game. If it weren’t for these few little critters gnawing at the back of my brain every time I try and push him up my rankings, believe me, he’d still be in my Top-3 as he was for the last handful of seasons. The first little mind-snapper reminds me that at 31 years of age, injuries are really starting to come to the forefront with Johnson as he’s missed 12 games the last two seasons and recently missed time in training camp due to a groin injury. The second one then pops up and tells me that the Texans STILL didn’t get ‘Dre any protection at the WR2 spot and will start the season with KEVIN WALTER as a starter. Ooof! The two other problems I have are that 1) The Houston offense is now the Arian Foster show, and 2) The Houston defense is good enough to allow the Texans to run the clock with Foster all they want, thus having no need to go to Johnson all the time like they did in the past. He might still end up amongst the top handful of fantasy receivers, but the odds are too stacked against it this season for me to draft a 31-year-old with NO double-digit TD seasons in his career as my WR1.

15.           Demaryius Thomas (Den) – Demaryius has all the raw skills/ability to become a fantasy WR1 as early as this season, but with all the questions surrounding Peyton Manning at this point, I can’t anoint him as such just yet. That said, Demaryius went pretty nuts during the final third of 2011 and into the playoffs with Tim Tebow as his QB, so what do you think he’ll do with Peyton Manning if he DOES stay healthy? As a 6’3”, former first-round/first-WR taken in the 2010 draft (over Dez Bryant), I like him to have a bit of a breakout this season.

16.           Marques Colston (NO) – Barring injury, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more consistent target amongst the Top-10 receivers in the league. And now that Robert Meachem is gone, Brees and his top-ranked passing attack will likely turn to their giant possession receiver even more. He’s not a sexy pick, as Colston rarely puts up a fantasy numbers that will win you weeks on his own, but he’s a real nice WR2 if you can snag him.

17.           Steve Smith (Car) – Smitty had quite a resurgence in 2011 with the big rookie-of-the-year QB running the show, and I highly doubt the fireworks will stop simply because the year flipped over. Brandon Lafell isn’t much of a protective force lining up as the Panthers WR2, but he IS getting better and should start to take some of the opposing safeties focus off of Smith as the 2012 season rolls on. With a solid running game still intact, Smitty should be able to roam free in the secondary again this season and put up some nice numbers in bunches throughout his age-33 campaign.

18.           Jeremy Maclin (Phi) – Maclin has been a very disciplined/solid receiver for the Eagles since he joined the league in 2009, but this could be the year he breaks out of his mold and dominates the way he’s been predicted to. The Philadelphia offense has as much talent as anybody in the league right now with Vick, McCoy, Maclin, Jackson and Celek, so there’s no way a defense can key in on just one guy. With McCoy likely to get a fair amount of attention after his breakout last season and Vick determined to stay healthy, Maclin should see a ton of balls flying his way and have ample opportunity to break most, if not all his career highs in 2012. If that happens, he could wind up with a 75-1,100-11 stat-line…which I’m sure would be just fine with his lucky fantasy owners.

19.           Dwayne Bowe (KC) – Bowe still hasn’t signed on the dotted line at this point and until he does, it will be tough to predict exactly what he’ll do this upcoming season. Bowe may have had a bit of a down-year compared to his 2010 breakout, but his numbers were still pretty impressive considering what he had to deal with all season. It seemed everyone and their mother got injured at some point while Bowe managed to come through unfazed, so you have to give him a bit of credit there. With the crap-sandwich that was Tyler Palko throwing him the ball for too many games, you probably couldn’t have asked for a better year out of Dwayne. With Matt Cassel back at the helm and this offense in for a positive upheaval under OC Brian Daboll, I expect Bowe to land high up the totem pole than this…but until he signs, this is as far up as he gets.

20.           Dez Bryant (Dal) – I’m pretty sure that half of this crap we all hear about Dez Bryant is a bunch of fabricated BS, but he the fact is that he still allows himself to be put into these sorts of situations, so he also has to shoulder at least some of the blame. How all this sideshow mumbo-jumbo will affect his play on the field this season is anyone’s guess, but there’s no doubt he has the skills to overcome it all and jump up into the elite group of wide receivers where he SHOULD belong. However, until he shows he can thrive under the pressure of the big lights in Dallas without something coming up to distract his on-field success, he’s no more than a fantasy WR2 with more upside than most. At the same time, Tony Romo staying even-keeled for a full season would go a long way towards that end, but I’m still waiting for that little wish to come true as well.

 

 

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Through the Top 100...

21.           Antonio Brown (Pit)

22.           Vincent Jackson (TB)

23.           Pierre Garcon (Was)

24.           Mike Wallace (Pit)

25.           Miles Austin (Dal)

26.           Eric Decker (Den)

27.           Torrey Smith (Bal)

28.           Stevie Johnson (Buf)

29.           Titus Young (Det)

30.           Reggie Wayne (Ind)

31.           DeSean Jackson (Phi)

32.           Denarius Moore (Oak)

33.           Kenny Britt (Ten)

34.           Robert Meachem (SD)

35.           Lance Moore (NO)

36.           Randy Moss (SF)

37.           Darrius Heyward-Bey (Oak)

38.           Greg Little (Cle)

39.           Santana Moss (Was)

40.           Jonathan Baldwin (KC)

 

 

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41.           Michael Crabtree (SF)

42.           Randall Cobb (GB)

43.           Sidney Rice (Sea)

44.           Kendall Wright (Ten)

45.           Anquan Boldin (Bal)

46.           Nate Washington (Ten)

47.           Terrell Owens (Sea)

48.           Brian Quick (StL)

49.           Malcom Floyd (SD)

50.           Jerome Simpson (Min)

51.           Justin Blackmon (Jax)

52.           Leonard Hankerson (Was)

53.           Santonio Holmes (NYJ)

54.           Nick Toon (NO)

55.           Mike Williams (TB)

56.           Emmanuel Sanders (Pit)

57.           Doug Baldwin (Sea)

58.           Laurent Robinson (Jax)

59.           Josh Gordon (Cle)

60.           Austin Collie (Ind)

 

 

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61.           Rueben Randle (NYG)

62.           Ryan Broyles (Det)

63.           Alshon Jeffery (Chi)

64.           Vincent Brown (SD)

65.           Stephen Hill (NYJ)

66.           Brandon LaFell (Car)

67.           Jordan Shipley (Cin)

68.           Mario Manningham (SF)

69.           James Jones (GB)

70.           Michael Floyd (Ari)

71.           Danny Amendola (StL)

72.           Chad OchoJohnCincoson (Mia)

73.           Jacoby Ford (Oak)

74.           David Nelson (Buf)

75.           Damian Williams (Ten)

76.           Eddie Royal (SD)

77.           Keshawn Martin (Hou)

78.           Andre Caldwell (Den)

79.           Brandon Tate (Cin)

80.           Earl Bennett (Chi)

 

 

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81.           Mohamed Sanu (Cin)

82.           Donald Jones (Buf)

83.           Lestar Jean (Hou)

84.           Devin Hester (Chi)

85.           Davone Bess (Mia) 

86.           Andre Roberts (Ari)

87.           Andre Holmes (Dal)

88.           Nate Burleson (Det)

89.           Jabar Gaffney (NE)

90.           Brandon Gibson (StL)

91.           Greg Salas (StL)

92.           Steve Breaston (KC)

93.           Steve Smith (StL)

94.           Golden Tate (Sea)

95.           Harry Douglas (Atl)

96.           David Gettis (Car)

97.           Devery Henderson (NO)

98.           Braylon Edwards (Sea)

99.           Brian Hartline (Mia)

100.        Juron Criner (Oak)

 

 

 

 

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- 07/30/12