Philip Rivers is NOT the Second Biggest Fantasy Bust of 2011

So, our twitter buddy Jerod Morris over at Midwest Sports Fan posted this funny little comic strip here. Before I get going, I do want to point out I think it’s funny. Comedy aside, Rivers doesn’t belong on this “Bust Buddies” list. The opening commentary was this.

Based on what they are being paid by their real life teams, and the production fantasy owners were expecting when they drafted them in the first two rounds, there have been no two bigger non-injury busts in fantasy football this season than Philip Rivers and Chris Johnson. (We’ll forgive Jamaal Charles and Peyton Manning for their season-ending injuries).

He states there are “no two bigger non-injury busts in fantasy football this season.” Hands down, zero argument, Chris Johnson is easily the biggest non-injury fantasy bust so far of 2011. As for Philip? I love him. LOVE me some P. Riv. But, I won’t sit here and claim the Rivers hasn’t been a fantasy bust. I certainly will not defend this season’s under-performance with his stellar fantasy number from previous years. I will, however, dispute that he’s the second biggest bust. That’s crazy talk… well, it’s crazy talk if my mediocre-at-best “research” has any validity at all.

My research is as follows: I only play in Yahoo fantasy leagues. They have a very simple interface. I like it. They have a “Projected Rankings” for users during the draft, then as the season progresses, they have “Actual Rankings”. We’ll call those PR and AR. For the non-fantasy layman, it’s basically just the difference between how the Yahoo fantasy minds expected the players to perform, and how they are actually performing. For example: Adrian Peterson had a PR: 1 and his AR: 4. Pretty freakin’ close. In contrast, our biggest bust has been Chris Johnson with PR: 4, AR: 117. That’s a 113 ranking difference, meaning there are 116 dudes putting up better fantasy numbers than him, when there were supposed to be only 3. Abysmal.

So. Where does our boy Philip Rivers fall as the “second” biggest bust? PR: 20, AR: 45. Under-performing? Yes. Second biggest bust though? Here are a few guys that I think are bigger fantasy busts. (Not including Deangelo Williams [PR: 33, AR: 138] on the below list as he did get a shout-out by MSF above, although I do think he’s a bigger bust than Rivers) Remember, because of the injury clause, I’m not going to include a ton of dudes that are killing fantasy teams w/ injuries. Here they are, my non-injury busts bigger than Philip Rivers, in no particular order:

Roddy White – PR: 14, AR: 74

Shonn Greene – PR: 21, AR: 80

Vincent Jackson – PR: 28, AR: 61

Mike Williams (TB) – PR: 35, AR: 184

Chad Ochocinco – PR: 66, AR: 2443

Sam Bradford – PR: 91, AR: 1912

Now, I know that Philip Rivers might be a player that has more scrutiny in the national media spotlight (which is rare for San Diego athletes), but I think all of these guys are bigger fantasy busts than he is. Also, my inclusion of VJax on the list should hopefully set aside any “homer” comments, because as a Chargers fan, I love him too. I know this entire post is trivial, and most folks don’t care about this crap at all… but I wrote this more for myself than any of you, because I, ya know, felt obliged to defend my boy Rivers.

Oh, and for the record… had the original MSF post been, “The Two Biggest Fantasy Busts that are also the Face of Their Franchise”… I wouldn’t have written this blog at all, because Rivers and CJ3000 would be accurate.

Well, Mr. Morris of MSF…what say you?

-bp

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