Potential Busts for Week 6: Ranking the Top 10 for Fantasy Football

So sometimes you call someone out as a bust and he actually turns out to be a bust (see: Davis, Knile and/or Morris, Alfred). And sometimes you predict someone to be a bust and he ends up breaking his team’s single-game receiving record and scoring over 40 fantasy points (thanks, Demaryius, for making me question this whole fantasy writing thing). Do I need to remind you how unpredictable fantasy football is, or can we all agree that we’re on the same page at this point?

Same page? Okay good.

Now, considering I haven't grown out my beard and moved to the mountains to live the caveman life following Percy Harvin's three (that’s right: THREE) different touchdown reversals, which shifted my entire weekend’s fantasy landscape, I’m going to do what all sporting greats do: exercise my short term memory and go for it again. Here are ten players who I expect will be duds this weekend, though I suppose that they may just as well break some records. Good luck picking the former from the latter.

 

Top 10 Potential Busts & Disappointments for Week 6

1. Cordarrelle Patterson - WR, Minnesota Vikings

The dynamic playmaker was supposed to be a game changer for fantasy owners this season, but instead he's fallen flat on his face. He must be shaken up by the actions of his former teammate Adrian Peterson. Or else he’s drowning under the pressure that us savage fantasy owners put on him. Or he just doesn’t care about what amounts to quite a disappointing season. Whatever it is, I don’t imagine he’ll be turning everything around against a Lions defense that is currently the top yards-against defense in the league. Owners will have to wait at least one more week to see if Patterson is ever going to start producing.  Hit the bomb shelter if Julius Wright decides to prove that Week 4 wasn't a fluke and he actually is Teddy Bridgewater’s favorite target.

 

2. Ronnie Hillman / 3. C.J. Anderson / 4. Juwan Thompson - RB, Denver Broncos

Any owners banking on a someone rising from the ashes of Montee Ball’s pulled groin are going to be disappointed when the Jets front line begins stomping on those ashes, keeping anything from growing this weekend. The Jets as a team may be bad, but anyone who doesn’t agree that their rushing defense is top-notch doesn’t actually watch their games. And while I’m a huge supporter of the idea that any running back can easily explode within Denver’s unstoppable offense, I'm not banking on that this week. This will be one of those Peyton Manning games. Like last week. And the hundreds of games before that. Snag one or two of these guys to sit on, but do not start any of them in Week 6.

 

5. Austin Davis - QB, St. Louis Rams

Davis is going to be the waiver wire pickup of the week. He'll eventually be quite the NFL quarterback, and he could potentially be the answer to many of St. Louis’s woes. Davis has the potential to throw for 400 yards on any given Sunday (though it might take one or two additional weapons first). But San Francisco is going to make him wish he'd never picked up a football in the first place on Monday night. San Fran’s defense is a top-five option, and they'll use the national spotlight to prove that they're better than their St. Louis counterparts. First they’ll cut off the Rams ability to run the ball, and then they'll feast on the obvious passes that are coming their way. It just spells trouble every which way you look at it. Absolutely pick Austin Davis up off your waivers this week, but give him the headset and clipboard for this weekend, because he shouldn’t be the one leading the charge.

6. Steven Jackson - RB, Atlanta Falcons

The two touchdowns last week were probably really refreshing for anyone willing to risk a Jackson start. Well, don’t get used to it. More likely than not, SJax will continue to tease his fantasy owners. It won’t all be his fault. The Bears will have spent the whole week hearing the critics question how good they actually are (probably the same critics who picked this team to win the NFC North). Chicago sports a rushing defense that is just outside the top half of the league. Julius Peppers will do his part to vault them up a few rungs.

 

7. T.Y. Hilton - WR, Indianapolis Colts

Andrew Luck proves over and over that he could be on the cusp of punching his ticket into the VIP QB Club. He also proves over and over that he has no problem going nine receivers deep when deciding who should get the ball. Hilton is going to see Johnathan Joseph (who still has plenty in the tank), and Luck will not hesitate to avoid his top receiving threat if it ensures his team gets through an inevitably sloppy Thursday night game quickly and efficiently. Or he’s got something completely different in that Stanford brain of his, and he decides to make me look like an idiot.

 

8. Justin Hunter - WR, Tennessee Titans

You hear that weird sound? That’s the sound of the wheels falling off of the Titans’ season. The unofficial Preseason King of Potential has done nothing during the season to warrant the excitement he got early on, though much of the ultimate result has been out of Hunter’s control. He’s seen three different quarterbacks through five weeks, and he has had to deal with many other targets stealing the precious looks in a struggling offense. I know he’s playing Jacksonville (who I heard played Odessa in a scrimmage last week and still gave up 350 yards through the air), and he did well last week. But most of his points came from a single long touchdown, and Jacksonville will be motivated to prove that they aren’t a hopeless team for consecutive years. Plus, a Titan team coming off one of the most heartbreaking losses in team history seems awfully vulnerable to being punched in the face a second time this weekend, as they become overhyped and underestimate the Jaguars.

 

9. Heath Miller - TE, Pittsburgh Steelers

I questioned how good Delanie Walker would be against the Browns defense last week, so I am going to let it ride and do it again this weekend. Again, the Browns have the luxury of Joe Haden shutting down half a field and linebackers who can move with opposing tight ends. Miller is a favorite safety net of Ben Roethlisberger's, so I’d imagine the Steelers will end up in a bad spot once that safety net is taken away from them.

 

10. Pierre Garcon - WR, Washington Redskins

Dang, I am pretty messed up for going at this guy two weeks in a row (two catches for 23 yards? Ding. Win for Brian), but I see Garcon dudding it up again. The Redskins are volatile and bound to spontaneously combust any minute now, and I think we’re beginning to realize that DeSean Jackson is way better at doing Pierre Garcon things than Garcon actually is. Plus, Garcon is a hair puller. And hair pulling should be left to catfighting!

 

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