It's been a pleasure watching one of my favorite fantasy players make a national name for himself in these playoffs, as Larry Fitzgerald has gone absolutely bonkers in three games. In fact, his last two regular season weeks were huge as well, so he's on a five-game run during which he's caught 31 passes for 650 yards and 10 touchdowns. It's worth pointing out that sometimes postseason success can carry over into the next season -- in the form of causing him to get routinely drafted far too high in fantasy football.
Ryan Grant and Eli Manning are examples from last season who didn't live up to their draft value in many leagues. Can Fitzgerald really be drafted too high, though? He was second in total points last year for receivers, a mere four back from Andre Johnson. He's only going to be 26, and he's already compiled three 1,400-yard seasons. Still, the short answer to the above question is yes, he could be drafted too high.
Let's say he has another gigantic game in the Super Bowl. You could have some rubes in your league drafting him in the top half of the first round, and that's just insane. It's too easy to find a stud receiver off the wire, and the top guys are too fickle to justify drafting one so high. As an example, consider that Antonio Bryant finished eighth in receiving points, while the consensus top receiver, Randy Moss, checked in at 10th.
What could go wrong for Fitzgerald, though? He's a machine. Well, we have no idea what's going to happen with Kurt Warner, for one. What if the Cardinals win the Super Bowl and Warner decides to walk away on top? I realize Matt Leinart connected on a deep touchdown to Fitzgerald in New England, which helped jump-start this studly run, but it's still tough to trust the possible results should Warner not be the quarterback in Arizona next year.
All receivers, however, have several pitfalls. I'm ready to slightly buy into what we've seen from Fitzgerald in this postseason and elevate him to the top spot in my keeper receiver rankings over Johnson.
Don't get too crazy in overall rankings, keeping him in the 10th overall range, but Larry Fitzgerald is most certainly the top option at his position in fantasy football for 2009.
