Imagine yourself driving on a deserted stretch of highway. It is past midnight. The clanking noise under the hood of your car is getting louder. You meant to take your car to the mechanic but could not find the time. Your car starts shaking furiously. A steady stream of smoke flows forth from your engine. You pull to the side of the road, and take your key out of the ignition. Your car is incapacitated. Fear sets in as you realize you are stranded in the middle of nowhere. You desperately rummage under the seats for your cell phone. You find it wedged between an unfinished burrito and a tennis ball, with one bar of reception and a dying battery. Your mind is racing. You need help. Who are you going to call?
Aside from of course the Ghostbusters, you are going to call your go-to guy or girl. You will call someone you can trust, someone who will understand the urgency of the situation, and most importantly someone you can rely on. Whether a parent, sibling, or friend, your go-to guy is your best bet of surviving a desperate situation.
Hopefully, I have inspired you to take stock of the most important people in your life… the players on your fantasy football team. In fantasy football, the go-to guys are the players that the team depends upon to get the job done. These are the players with whole sections of the playbook dedicated to them. These players do not have to prove themselves or compete for attention. They are consistent parts of their teams offensive game plans.
Not surprisingly, Chris Johnson, Adrian Petersen, and Michael Turner are among the obvious go-to guys identified at the beginning of the season who are now paying their owners handsome dividends. These players are more than just go-to guys, they are superstars. The more interesting phenomenon is the realization that Shonn Greene and Ryan Mathews are not yet the go-to guys their owners hoped they would be. In retrospect, their failures seem obvious. Players with remarkable potential on strong offenses are ultimately high risk/high reward when compared to veterans or otherwise established players.
The go-to guy analysis becomes more useful on the margins. It requires fantasy owners to be conscious of looks and carries as opposed to simply yards and touchdowns. More than that, it requires owners to identify the intangibles- chemistry between a quarterback and a receiver or running back. To be clear, go-to guys can be just as inconsistent as high risk/high reward players. The difference is usually in the way they earn their fantasy points. The go-to receiver earns 8 points with 7 catches totaling 80 yards, while the high risk/high reward player might earn 8 points with one catch for 20 yards and a touchdown. When the go-to guy struggles, it is usually situational rather than due to lack of talent or opportunity. For example, go-to receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Brandon Marshall have struggled with ineffective quarterbacking, and go-to running backs like Maurice Jones-Drew and Ronnie Brown have struggled with injury, poor blocking, and defenses hell-bent on stopping the run. Nevertheless, barring a dramatic change in circumstances, each of these players will continue to be relied upon heavily by their offenses.
On balance, your go-to players provide both their NFL and fantasy teams with a consistent opportunity to gain yards, touchdowns, and fantasy points. While you wait for Greene, Mathews, Beanie Wells, and Felix Jones to have their breakout games, your underrated go-to running backs like Joseph Addai (pre-injury), Thomas Jones, Matt Forte, and LaDainian Tomlinson have kept your team competitive. Similarly, go-to receivers like Terrell Owens, Santana Moss, and New York’s Steve Smith have kept your team afloat while you wait for consistency from high potential receivers like Jacoby Jones, Mike Sims-Walker, and Michael Crabtree.
Ultimately, your go-to guys may not be as flashy or explosive as your other players, but they will give you your best chance to consistently put points on the board.
If you were stranded by the highway late at night, wouldn’t you rather have the assurance of Santana Moss picking you up in a Toyota Camry than the mere possibility of a ride in a fully loaded limousine with Shonn Greene?
8 comments:
You're my go to guy FFMVP!
good points here
OK Brett, I got a tough one for ya,
I've been offered Schaub, SJax, and Welker for Larry Fitz and McCoy. Standard league.
Every rest-of-year projection I can find says McCoy and SJax are the same, and Welker and Fitz are the same. I would thus be getting Schaub for free. My QB is Orton.
I don't want to do it. My opinion is that McCoy and Fitz are better and have higher ceilings, especially with touchdowns. What's your take?
I would do that trade in a second. Schaub was a fantasy stud last year and still has the potential to go off. S Jax is having another strong year and likely should be started. Welker is now the official goto guy in NE. McCoy is an unknown quantity at best and Fitz is struggling with bad quarterbacking
I'm not Brett, but it seems like Kyle Orton is fading down a little bit and Schaub should be picking up.. so with SJax included for McCoy, to me Welker is the free throw in and I would do it. Unless you really have that much faith in Orton for the rest of the year, you know he usually starts hot and then cools off.. extra 2 cents for ya. peace
Thanks for the thoughts, I'm going to really think about this one and pehaps make a counter offer.
I hear you guys, but a 3 for 2 trade would mean I would also have to drop one of Santonio Holmes, Beanie Wells, or Felix Jones...
Schaub's schedule looks unfriendly, too...
Yeah tough to drop them, Welker would probably have to get the axe if it were me. You know more about your league and situation tho and def have some good points, so good luck.
Yeah, that's a tough one. I think I would take the trade. The question is whether you drop Welker or Holmes in my opinion, and as much as I like Holmes, I think I'd have to drop him.
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