Monday, August 9, 2010

8/9 Bust of the Day: TJ Houshmandzadeh

WR TJ HOUSHMANDZADEH, Seahawks

TJ’s first year in the Pacific Northwest didn’t go quite as well as we envisioned – at least not compared to the previous three in Cincinnati. Houshmandzadeh had his fewest catches (79) since 2005 and his fewest TDs (3) since 2002 during his debut season with the Seahawks. That’s not the kind of production drop you want to see in a receiver who will be turning 33 this season, especially not a guy who had sports hernia surgery in the offseason.


Now, you can trace a lot of Houshmandzadeh’s problems of last season back to a shaky offensive line, the lack of a ground game and poor quarterback play from a banged-up Matt Hasselbeck and Seneca Wallace. But Seattle took significant steps to rectify those issues in the offseason, with new coach Pete Carroll bringing in esteemed assistant coach Alex Gibbs to revamp the offensive line and drafting left tackle Russell Okung and WR Golden Tate. On paper, the Seattle offense should be better, which can only help TJ’s numbers.

But ultimately, he’s still a 33-year-old receiver on the downside of his career. He’s still coming off a sports hernia, an injury that can resurface. He’s still got a creaky Hasselbeck (or untested new backup Charlie Whitehurst) throwing him the ball. There’s fantasy value here if you can get Houshmandzadeh as your third receiver, but not enough for me to stick my neck out and make him my No. 2 WR.


Photo by The Associated Press

No comments: