3 Fantasy Football Players Sending Out Warning Signals in Week 3

September 24, 2014

Rek analyzes the top three fantasy football players that did not perform well in Week 3. These fantasy football busts and underperformers are sending out warning signals.

Players That Are Making Me Nervous

Just a quick follow up to last week's piece - I am officially concerned about Tom Brady. An "elite" quarterback who can't torch the Raiders is no longer an elite quarterback.

I'm also still very concerned about Torrey Smith and would be getting rid of him as soon as possible if I owned him. Last week I said I wanted to get rid of Toby Gerhart if I owned him, and nothing about this week's performance changed my mind. Now let's get started with some players you should be concerned about going into Week 4.

Vincent Jackson (WR, TB)

94% Owned on Fleaflicker

Remember when Vincent Jackson was someone that you could rely on for over 1,000 yards and 5+ TDs the past few years? Well, I don't think you can expect the same this year. Whether Josh McCown is at the helm or Mike Glennon, I'm not liking his chances.

Admittedly, I do think that V-Jax stands a better chance with Glennon as the quarterback, but have you seen the Buccaneers O-line? If you haven't, let's just say it doesn't take a cannon ball to break through their line. In fact, their O-line might not be able to stop a softly tossed potato from breaking through to attack their quarterback.

Granted, so far V-Jax is making the most of his targets by averaging 10.2 yards per reception, but that would still be the lowest total of his entire career. Some of you may not be that concerned because he had a touchdown last week. Let me fill you in about that touchdown - he very clearly pushed off to catch it, but the officials didn't care because the game was such a huge blowout in favor of Atlanta. I'd be shipping off any part of the Buccaneers offense that I could as soon as possible, and yes that includes one Vincent Jackson.

Marques Colston (WR, NO)

83% Owned on Fleaflicker

Marques Colston has been the go-to receiver for Drew Brees for years now. Whenever you can say you're the go-to receiver for one of the top three quarterbacks in the game, your life is probably pretty good. Colston is always reliable to put up big numbers by the end of the year. The only problem is that Drew Brees likes to spread the ball around, and so far he seems to have a new favorite toy in Brandin Cooks.

So far Cooks has out-targeted Colston 24-13. Don't make the mistake of thinking that trend won't continue. Cooks is the young exciting play maker who is going to get fed the ball so the Saints can develop him, while Colston's better days are mostly behind him.

This doesn't mean Colston can't make the most of his targets, as we have seen in 2 of the 3 games the Saints have played this season. It just means that games like the one against the Browns might become more common for Colston than they used to be. Closely monitor this situation, but don't hit the panic button just yet.

Andre Johnson (WR,HOU)

97% owned on Fleaflicker

Andre Johnson is another aging star that has me slightly worried. As exciting as it is to see DeAndre Hopkins breakout in his second year of play, it could spell trouble for Andre. For the past two years, Johnson has been able to total 1400+ yards, but his touchdown totals have also been lower than what fantasy football owners would like to see. With Hopkins emerging as a big red zone threat, owners might see touchdown totals for Andre dip even lower.

As a fantasy football player, you already know that touchdowns can make or break a player. Sure, Johnson will still get nice point totals (especially in PPR leagues) if he gets 100+ yards a game. But if he doesn't total huge yardage on a given day, and doesn't have a TD, that's really going to hurt his owners. One only needs to look at the first two games this season against Washington and Oakland to find a good example of this. In those games Johnson had 93 yards, and 74 yards respectively, but no TDs. His fantasy value in standard leagues for those two games - 9.3 points and 7.4 points. Not terrible, but certainly not WR1 or even WR2 numbers, which is what he was drafted to be.

Similar to the Colston situation, this is another one to monitor. Just don't be surprised if the emergence of DeAndre Hopkins eats into Johnson's value. If someone offers you a trade of Johnson's value on draft day, you should take that deal right away.

Closing Thoughts On Week 3

We seem to be seeing some changings of the guards this year for wide receivers. If that's not any indication that this year's draft class was at deep at wide receiver, as everyone said it was, I'm not sure what would be. Remember - dump Vincent Jackson for anything of value as soon as possible. Monitor Colston closely, especially with how many mouths there are to feed in the Saints passing attack. Finally, cross your fingers if you own Andre Johnson that he starts finding the end zone soon.