Icon SMI

More Articles from Fantasy Football Freaks

Reminder: Site Survey for the 2012 Season
iPad Winner Revealed
Super Bowl Rankings
Conference Championship Rankings
Divisional Round Rankings
Wild Card Weekend Rankings
Fantasy Football Freaks are the Champions of the 2011 All Pro Leagues 32 Team Expert League
Week 17: Gems for the Last Weekend
The Freaks Projections and Ratings 2011 Week 17
The Freaks Sleepers 2011 Week 17

The Jaguars have made it pretty clear that they don't have any interest in bringing back unrestricted free agent Mike Sims-Walker. They're going to let him walk and take their chances with the remainder of their receiving corps. Sims-Walker was anything but consistent for the Jags (and fantasy owners), but his departure will free up looks for other guys. The question is who is going to benefit the most?

Mike Thomas
Thomas would seem the obvious choice. He picked up MSW's slack last season and outperformed him in receptions, yardage, and fantasy points. However, he never showed any flash or big play ability - he only notched a single 40+ yard play in 2010. Aside from that, Thomas was a solid WR3, managing to put up 10+ points in 5 of the final 9 games of the season. Heading into 2011, he will have every opportunity to increase his reception total (66) and has a shot at 1,000 yards. We'd like to believe that Thomas could be a dependable WR2, but we aren't convinced he can consistently find the end zone.

Jason Hill
If you don't root for Jacksonville, you might not even know who this guy is. Well put him on your radar, because he is a potential sleeper pick for the back end of your receiving corps. He only saw quality playing time in the final 4 games of the season. In that stretch he managed 10 receptions for 233 yards and 1 TD. Unlike Thomas, he has shown some ability to break off a big play. His long reception for each of the final four contests was 48, 26, 37, 44. He's currently second on the Jags depth chart, so we're expecting to see a lot more of him.

Marcedes Lewis
Lewis was a monster surprise last year. He managed to put up big numbers with 700 yards and 10 TD which was good enough to rank him 4th amongst TE (3rd in PPR). That put him in the company of Jason Witten, Antonio Gates, and Vernon Davis (FYI: In PPR, Witten was in a different stratosphere by himself).

The thing about Marcedes is that I think he can improve in 2011. Right now, I don't believe in the Jags ability to stretch the field. I see this team moving down the field with shorter plays and frequently coming up short of the end zone. They'll spend more time in the red zone and letting Lewis do his thing - throwing it down for six.