T.J. Houshmandzadeh finally made his free agency choice today, taking the Seattle Seahawks up on their offer to pay him $40 million ($15 million guaranteed) over five years.From a football perspective, Housh's decision is huge: the Seahawks are immediately made better while the Bengals, well, hey, at least they're the Bengals. From a fantasy perspective though, this makes things extremely interesting.
Stock Rises
T.J. Houshmandzadeh -- First of all, in my mind, even though he no longer has the benefit of playing from behind with Carson Palmer as his quarterback, Housh actually takes a step up with this move. Yes, it's true that he's always benefited from having Chad Johnson alongside him and yes, the Seattle offense traditionally spreads the ball around, but this is a guy who had more catches in the past three years than anyone else in the NFL. Suddenly he gets Matt Hasselbeck and the pass-happy, West Coast Seattle offense? Um, yes please.
Matt Hasselbeck -- Again, presuming he's healthy, and assuming that Jim Mora doesn't do anything crazy with the 'Hawks offense, he's finally going to have a big play wide receiver in town. That should do wonder for his numbers and put him back near the elite quarterbacks in 2009.
Chad Johnson -- It's never great when a receiver loses his star counterpart because defenses can focus more of their attention on said star. But that might be just what Ocho Cinco wants anyway. Besides, as long as Palmer's reasonably healthy, he should be able to catch some balls.
Deion Branch -- Another guy for whom a rise seems counter-intuitive, but now Branch gets to operate without having the burden of being a number one receiver. Bobby Engram is basically gone and Courtney Taylor should be relegated to the slot.
Chris Henry -- The oft-troubled wideout is now the defacto number two wideout in Cincy. For better or for worse.
Stock Falls:
Michael Crabtree -- I loved this guy as a rookie wideout heading to Seattle. Now it looks like he's more likely to land in Oakland or San Francisco, depending on how his surgery and the draft pan out. He'll still be a nice first year option, but Seattle would have been a pretty spectacular fit.
Carson Palmer -- Yes, it is odd that 85's value could jump while Palmer's takes a hit. But, when a quarterback loses a guy with as many catches as Housh, his appeal to fantasy players drop. Palmer will still probably be a pretty good bargain, but he'll be a risk too.
Courtney Taylor -- See above, not that it mattered, given his poor production in his rookie year. I actually like Taylor though, so consider him an early "deep sleeper" for my 2009 list in the event of injury.
