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

Rookie Colt McCoy started 2010 in a situation that made it easy to imagine him seeing some action in his first season. Jake Delhomme was brought in after a miserable season in Carolina and was backed up by former Seahawk Seneca Wallace. Neither of those guys were trending positively and so it was only a matter of time before the Browns gave McCoy a shot to see what he could do. Add some injuries into the mix and Week 6 of the season will feature McCoy under center for the 1-4 franchise.

Getting his first NFL start is great for McCoy, but the bad news sets in quickly once you realize he'll be starting against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers have been dominant so far this season and this week they'll be getting back QB Ben Roethlisberger. Not exactly the dream debut.

It is definitely a tough matchup and things could get ugly, but this will be a great test for the rookie. If he can hang in there against a team like the Steelers, who knows what else he could do.

I liken McCoy's situation a lot to Jimmy Clausen's and not just because they're both starting in offenses that recently featured Delhomme.

They're both rookie QB's forced into early action this season without a lot of weapons who are bound to struggle for a while. Clausen at least has a top notch WR in Steve Smith. Although Smith is currently injured and the two have not accomplished much in the short time they've worked together.

Fantasy Outlook:
Unfortunately, McCoy doesn't have anyone of Smith's caliber. He does have a couple of talented receivers in Mohamed Massaquoi and Joshua Cribbs, but the pair has been largely unproductive under Delhomme and Wallace.

This week McCoy is too much of an unknown. You certainly shouldn't go picking him up at this point and you'll want to leave Massaquoi and Cribbs on the bench. The Steelers do give up passing yardage, but Cleveland wideouts are just too risky to play this week.