Fantasy Football Quarterback & Running Back Busts

Researching, finding and drafting fantasy football studs is a sweet feeling. The feeling of drafting a fantasy football bust is like driving a screwdriver into your forehead. Every year has its share of top projected players who end up in the bust category.

Whether by performance or due to injury, players who are expected to lead your team but go bust instead are fantasy season crushers. The 2009 fantasy football season was no different as more than a few highly drafted players went bust.

2009 Fantasy Football Busts – Quarterbacks

The Chicago Bears thought they got their quarterback of the future when they traded for QB Jay Cutler. Fantasy owners felt the same way and Cutler went of the board as a top five QB in many drafts. Cutler saw his numbers rise in Denver from 267 in 2007 to 344 in 2009 and many fantasy owners were expecting another bump in 2009. What they got out of Cutler that was a season plagued by interceptions aa he scored just 292 fantasy points in the end.

After posting 300 fantasy points with the New England Patriots, in relief of Tom Brady in 2008, the expectations for QB Matt Cassel were running high. The Kansas City Chiefs lured him away from the Patriots but Cassel soon found out that the grass wasn’t greener in Kansas City. The Chiefs were a bad football team that wanted to run the ball in 2009. That combined to drag Cassel’s production down to 215 fantasy points during the 2009 season.

2009 Fantasy Football Busts – Running Backs

Not many stud running backs have fallen further off the pace from one year to the next than Falcons RB Michael Turner. Having played in obscurity behind LaDainian Tomlinson in San Diego for his entire career, Turned soared with the Falcons and scored 282 fantasy points in 2008. Turner was a top five overall pick in many drafts last season and “rewarded” his faithful owners with a miniscule 155.6 fantasy points during the 2009 season.

The arrival of Cutler in Chicago was seen as a chance to get more running room for RB Matt Forte. It turned out to hurt Forte way more than it helped him. Forte had a stellar rookie season in 2008 when he recorded 307 fantasy points. His sophomore season turned into a nightmare as he saw fantasy total drop to 223 points.

The Houston Texans were another team hoping that their star rookie RB would continue to flourish in their attack style offense. Steve Slaton finished the 2008 season like a house fire and recored 276 total fantasy points. Fantasy owners saw his rookie season as a sign of things to come but they were sadly mistaken. Slaton started the 2009 season slow, picked up some steam and then faltered badly before suffering a season ending shoulder injury. His 171.4 fantasy points in 2009 ranked 26th at the running back position.

An important point for any fantasy football draft is to be mindful of the past, just don’t live in it. Fantasy owners should always be leery of one hit wonders!