3 Fantasy Football Players Sending Out Warning Signals After Week 6

October 15, 2014

Rek analyzes the top three fantasy football players that did not perform well in Week 6 including Percy Harvin and Bishop Sankey. These fantasy football busts are sending out warning signals.

Players That Are Making Me Nervous For Week 7

First, a quick follow up to last week's article: LeSean McCoy obviously decided to bust out after I wrote about him here. The Darren Sproles injury doesn't hurt his chances to continue producing at a high level, either. However, Zac Stacy continued to look bad against the Niners on Monday night. It didn't help that Tre Mason looked a ton better than Stacy ever did. Stacy is very volume-dependent, and the same was true in his first year. Be prepared to move on without him.

Now let's turn our attention to some other players who let their owners down this past week.

Percy Harvin (WR, SEA)

91% owned on Fleaflicker

Percy Harvin is one of those players who can be used on all kinds of trick plays and even runs the ball sometimes. Many owners drafted Percy as a low-end WR1 or high-end WR2 this year. Unfortunately, so far he has not performed like it at all. Granted, in the game against Washington he managed a ridiculous three touchdowns called back on penalties. (Sorry for bringing up those memories, Harvin owners. I know you were trying to avoid that almost as much as the memory of the most embarrassing moment in your life. My bad.)

Other worrying news for Harvin owners: he is averaging only 36 snaps per game compared to 57.5 for Jermaine Kearse and Doug Baldwin. There's also the fact that the Seahawks are a run-first team, and why wouldn't they be when they have a guy nicknamed Beastmode running the ball? I'm sure many owners are frustrated after Percy had three catches for zero yards and one rush for -1 yards on Sunday against the Cowboys. I know I would be.

There is some good news, though. Minus that last game, Russell Wilson is looking more effective in the passing game and living up to his twitter handle of being "dangerous." The Seahawks also face the Rams next week. Yeah, those same Rams who completely blew coverage in the first half of the game against the Niners to allow an 80-yard touchdown to afterthought Brandon Lloyd.

What does all this add up to? Expectations from draft day for Harvin need to be tempered a bit. He's definitely not a WR1, and honestly he's probably not a WR2. He's probably one of the more boom-or-bust guys around, but his boom is much bigger than that of most other options. If someone wanted to offer me WR2 value for Harvin, I'd take that deal. See if there is an owner in your league who will bite.

Bishop Sankey (RB, TEN)

67% owned on Fleaflicker

Ah, the darling of the fantasy community. #SankeyLeg is a dance we were all supposed to be doing by now as he scored endless touchdowns in a blaze of glory. Games like the one Sankey had against the Bengals are great in terms of yards per carry. He even managed to make a lot of limited opportunities against the Colts. It's for that reason that the fantasy community couldn't wait for Sankey to be named the starter.

Then it happened. Shonn Greene got hurt and this was finally Sankey's moment. He was running against a terrible Jags offense. His decimation of the record books would begin now. So, how did Sankey respond? By rushing 18 times for 61 yards and no touchdowns. In fact, Sankey didn't do much better than the yards Dexter McCluster gained on his receptions. You know Dexter Mccluster? He's the guy you never hear about unless your league is insanely deep.

This may all sound overly harsh on Sankey, but the love on twitter is getting to be a bit much. I do still think Sankey has talent, as evidenced by his 4.2 yards per carry on the season, but the Titans QB situation is too bad to get Sankey many rushing attempts. Even when he did get the attempts, like he did in Week 6, he wasn't able to make much of them. I know I'll be the pariah of the fantasy community for this, but until he has a big game with a lot of volume, he is nothing more than a deep-league bench piece to me.

Kendall Wright (WR, TEN)

73% owned on Fleaflicker

Remember the Titans? No, not the sports movie, but the NFL team I just mentioned in this very same article. Well, you may recall that their QB situation is not very good. Jake Locker can't stay on the field, and Charlie Whitehurst isn't even replacement-level.

Who does this impact? Just maybe the entire Titans' receiving corps. So why am I singling out Kendall Wright? Because coming into the year many of us thought he'd be the next Keenan Allen (who should also be featured in this article). However, so far Wright only has one game this year with over 50 yards receiving. His value has been incredibly touchdown-dependent, and so far he only has three of those, two of which came in the same game.

Maybe the Titans can hire the Ice Titan from Hercules to be their QB. At least he seems like he knows how to throw things. Or the Fire Titan could give them the burning desire to win. Jokes aside, Kendall Wright will be a season-long headache for owners trying to figure when to start him, until the Tennessee QB situation stabilizes. I'd keep him as a bench piece, but if he has a big game, I'd try to sell immediately.

Closing Thoughts After Week 6

The Titans examples demonstrate how important it is for a team to have a good quarterback. Obviously, quarterbacks impact wide receivers, but they also have a major impact on how running backs play, as well.  The Percy Harvin case is a bit harder to figure out, because he's the best wide receiver on his team but isn't being treated as such. Maybe the Seahawks know something we don't. Until his usage increases, his value will be lower than what most expected. As an aside, I wonder if we may see Paul Richardson get more involved in the Seahawks passing game soon. That would hurt Harvin's value further.

As always you can find me on twitter @RekedFantasy. Especially for those of you who want to know what I think about Keenan Allen (spoiler: it's a bit more positive than some of the wide receivers I've listed here).