The Four Best Buy-Low Candidates (In No Particular Order)
David Garrard - Jacksonville Jaguars - The Jags have gotten off to a, well, not-so-good start, especially for their once dominating running game. Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew have only been able to manage four yards a carry and that means a lot more passing for Garrard. Last year, Garrard was only allowed to throw more than 30 attempts five times. He’s already done that three times this season. In fact, after a terrible opening stretch of games, Garrard has settled down over the last two weeks. He has started to connect with Matt Jones and Mike Walker, which just means it doesn’t really matter who the wide outs are. If you need to solidify your backup quarterback position, Garrard will continue to be a good bye-week replacement.
LaDainian Tomlinson - San Diego Chargers - Everyone knows the story on Tomlinson. He’s battling a foot injury that seems to get re-aggravated every week. He’s had a sub par season averaging a paltry 3.7 yards per carry. I’ve got bad news: He’s not going to get better when he’s playing every week. But the Chargers bye week is coming up and 14 days should be enough time for LT to heal up and return to the elite fantasy back status. Trade for the former All-Pro now (or in a few weeks), and reap the rewards during your fantasy playoffs. And yes, this was a total cop-out on my part. Deal with it.
Chris Johnson - Tennessee Titans - How can Johnson be a buy low candidate? Well, fantasy owners haven’t gotten a big game from him yet. Sure, Johnson had a big game Week One, but he was on most team’s benches at that point. Since then, he’s played solidly against some very tough run defenses. Now, his schedule is about to get peachy and fantasy owners can take advantage by grabbing him at what could very well be his low point in value.
Andre Johnson - Houston Texans - Johnson actually struggled a bit this season in Houston. It doesn’t help that Matt Schaub has been in and out of hospitals and backup Sage Rosenfels seems to enjoy practicing his “helicopter” during games. Still, when Johnson is right, he’s absolutely unstoppable. He has two 100 yard games and is averaging 77 yards per game. As the quarterback situation solidifies (and maybe even stops fumbling), Johnson will again be the top 10 wide out he was pre-injury last season.
The One Best Sell-High Candidate
Reggie Bush - New Orleans Saints - Don’t get me wrong, Bush is an incredible talent when he’s in open space. The problem is that he can’t create his own space. As a pure runner, he’s skittish and couldn’t identify a running lane if there were arrows pointing to it. As I’ve mentioned in the past, Bush gets his points in ways that teams can game-plan against. So far, opponents haven’t done a great job executing those plans, but they will as the season wears on. When teams contain Bush’s receptions and kick away during punts, all that’s left is a career 3.6 yards per carry average and a 3.3 one this season. That’s worth trading off and right now, Bush can get you a couple good pieces in return.