LaDanian Tomlinson (RB) - Chargers

Yeah, yeah. Every year you see quite a few websites pick the super-stud from last year to bust, just to be different. That’s not what we are doing. Our rhinocerous sized balls already set us apart from everyone else, we don’t need to make off-the-wall fantasy predictions to accomplish that. We also don’t think of Tomlinson as a bust, in the traditional sense of the word.

The Bust Explained

  When you have it good for so long, sometimes you start taking things for granted. Let’s take Kevin Federline for instance. One minute, your banging the hottest thing going, and then boom, in the blink of an eye your a failed rapper trying to scrape up enough appearances to cover child support for the month. My, how quickly things can go wrong. Luckily for Tomlinson, he’s not a talentless turd like K-Fed. He does however, have a rather disturbing amount of miles on the tread, in his 6 years in the league. LT has had 390 or more touches, EVERY year he’s been in the league. Larry Johnson gets 450 in one season, and the whole world thinks his legs are going to fall off at the kneecap. No RB stays healthy forever, but that alone is not enough of a reason to downrank LT. What worries us, is that last year was a record-breaking year. Whenever an offensive player starts getting close to a record, the coaches will keep feeding him the ball, and going out of their way to get that player’s name etched in the books. It happened in Manning’s 50TD year. It happened with Tomlinson last year. There is NO way he’ll score 30TDs again. It just won’t happen. Plus, Rivers is more experienced now, and with a fresh offensive approach, the Chargers will be throwing the ball a bit more often.

The Risk Factor:

  Tomlinson could continue his amazing level of play, and put up another moster year. It’s within reason. However, his value is at an all time high. It’s pretty unrealistic to think he’ll have the best fantasy season by a RB ever, two years in a row.

The Strategy:

 Tomlinson isn’t going to “bust”, unless he gets hurt. However, we do think his stats will see a fairly significant dropoff from last year. He’s still the #1 pick, nothing else makes sense, but we think his TDs and yardage will drop down to a more reasonable level. This bust rating is more for auction drafts and keeper leagues. His value will never be higher than it is right now.

Busts

• Bust - Ladell Betts (WAS) - August 23rd, 2007
• Bust - LenDale White (TEN) - August 21st, 2007
• Bust - Simms/Garcia (TB) - August 14th, 2007
• Bust - Isaac Bruce (STL) - August 11th, 2007
• Bust - Shaun Alexander (SEA) - August 9th, 2007
• Bust - Darrell Jackson (SF) - August 7th, 2007
• Bust - Ben Roethlisberger (PIT) - August 2nd, 2007
• Bust - Brian Westbrook (PHI) - July 31st, 2007
• Bust - Jerry Porter (OAK) - July 27th, 2007
• Bust - Chad Pennington (NYJ) - July 26th, 2007
• Bust - Reuben Droughns (NYG) - July 23rd, 2007
• Bust - Deuce McAllister (NO) - July 20th, 2007
• Bust - Donte’ Stallworth (NE) - July 18th, 2007
• Bust - Tarvaris Jackson (MIN) - July 16th, 2007
• Bust - David Martin (MIA) - July 13th, 2007
• Bust - Eddie Kennison (KC) - July 11th, 2007
• Bust - Marcedes Lewis (Jac) - July 9th, 2007
• Bust - Dallas Clark (IND) - July 6th, 2007
• Bust - Matt Schaub (HOU) - July 4th, 2007
• Bust - Donald Driver (GB) - July 2nd, 2007
• Bust - Roy Williams (DET) - June 29th, 2007
• Bust - Travis Henry (DEN) - June 27th, 2007
• Bust - Marion Barber (DAL) - June 25th, 2007
• Bust - Jamal Lewis (CLE) - June 22nd, 2007
• Bust - Rudi Johnson (CIN) - June 20th, 2007
• Bust - Jake Delhomme (CAR) - June 18th, 2007
• Bust - Robbie Gould (CHI) - June 15th, 2007
• Bust - Marshawn Lynch (BUF) - June 13th, 2007
• Bust - Joe Horn - June 11th, 2007
• Bust - Edgerrin James (ARI) - June 7th, 2007
• Bust - Steve McNair - June 5th, 2007
• Busts - May 31st, 2007

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