Dwayne Bowe (Player Profile 2011)-  05/02/11

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Pros and Cons for 2011

(+) Looks like the Wide Receivers camp Bowe attended last offseason (the Larry Fitz WR camp that he runs with Cris Carter) worked like a charm.  Plan on Dwayne being here to stay

(+) Last season, Bowe had more TDs during one seven-game stretch (13) than any other wide receiver had over the entire year

(+) Besides his great size and strength, he can run like a freakin’ Gazelle

(+) As has become his M.O., it looks like OC Charlie Weis didn’t have a problem turning Bowe into a bona fide Pro Bowler

(+) Jamaal Charles is a stud; Thomas Jones supplies great depth; the Chiefs definitely have a running game that forces defenses to pay attention

(+) The Chiefs have been rumored to be looking for a wide receiver in the first round of the draft to help take the pressure off of Bowe next season

(–) Currently has one of the worst supporting casts of WRs in the league with Chris Chambers as the Chiefs WR2

(–) Roger Goodell suspended Bowe for five games in 2009 for substance abuse (diarrheic).  Hopefully he can continue to stay clean

(–) Might spend more time on Facebook/MySpace "importing" women than in the video room

(–) Dwayne is an emotional player who is easily discouraged and has a tendency to disappear for full games/weeks at a time

2010 Review

For every person out there who can say ‘I told you so’ about Dwayne Bowe, there are at least ten others kicking themselves in the ass thinking they could have grabbed him at some point in their fantasy drafts, but didn’t.

The fact of the matter is the writing was on the wall concerning Bowe’s ascendance into the top echelon of wide receivers this past year.  Bowe proved to be on the verge of dominance throughout his first three years in the league, and if it weren’t for his four-game suspension in 2009 for taking a diuretic, he might have broken out a year sooner.

What’s interesting is that the key to his emergence didn’t have anything to do with something that happened during an NFL season, but what Bowe chose to do in the off-season leading up to 2010.

For the past couple of off-seasons, All Pro wide receiver, Larry Fitzgerald, has held a Wide Receiver’s Camp up in Minneapolis where he assembles mostly young NFL receivers looking to learn more about their position.  At this camp, players enjoy the privilege of learning from All-Time Greats such as Jerry Rice and Cris Carter about the various nuances within the game and the skills needed to excel at the wide receiver position.  In 2009, players such as Brandon Marshall, Greg Jennings, Lee Evans, and most notably, Sidney Rice, all attended the camp.  I highlight Sidney Rice here because after being frustrated throughout his first two years in the league, Rice specifically attributed his breakout season in 2009 to the lessons he learned at Larry’s camp in the off-season beforehand.

After the 2009 season ended, Bowe knew he needed to do something to take his game up to the next level.  What did he do?  He followed in Sidney Rice’s footsteps and decided to enter Fitzgerald’s WR camp.

This is what I mean be saying that ‘the writing was on the wall’ for Bowe.  Players who go to this camp who also seem to have obvious, untapped potential all come away from the experience a much better player.  Bowe proved this by setting nearly every career mark for himself in 2010 while coming up with his first Pro Bowl bid.  His 72 receptions may not have been particularly overwhelming (tied for 16^th in the league), but his 1,162 yards (7^th) ended up being 25 more yards than Larry Fitzgerald himself had while his league-leading 15 TDs were absolutely staggering.  And of course, the most important stat for fantasy footballers, Bowe came in second for WRs in total fantasy points with 206.6 (12.9 per game).

Dwayne Bowe has arrived, fantasy lovers, and with the Kansas City Chiefs being a much improved team, it looks like he’s here to stay.

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- 05/02/11