Despite Larry Johnson’s extensive holdout from the Kansas City Chiefs training camp and a semi productive fantasy impact least season, Johnson is geared to have a huge season much like the one he experienced in 2005.  In fact, he has the caliber to be the 2^nd   or 3^rd running back selected in any fantasy football league. Having such a bold prediction can be attributed to three things.

First, Larry Johnson is a proven back that produces proven results. Since becoming a starting running back he has rushed for more yards than any other running back in the past 3 years. In fact only LaDanian Tomlinson and Shaun Alexander have more combined touchdowns than Johnson. Therefore, statistically he stacks up to anyone in the league.

Second, Johnson is still a young talent with a lot of potential and growth. In only his 5^th NFL season, Johnson has only played in little more than half of the games he was active. Much of that was attributed to being the backup to a former fantasy stud, Priest Holmes. As a result in only playing two full seasons and half of another, Johnson has nowhere near the wear and tear that Tomlinson, S. Jackson, or Alexander has accumulated. Besides last year’s bumps and bruises he is a durable, heavy duty, and reliable running back that can make through an entire season.

Finally, Johnson is gaining much of what Tomlinson and Alexander are not… REST. Although, he has not practiced with the team since June’s minicamp and has not encountered any physical contact since the Chiefs loss to the Colts, Johnson is able to avoid much of the rigor from the first couple weeks of training camp.  This actually is a huge benefit in his favor because his body is not going to take the daily beatings he could encounter in these early training camp practices. That clearly could be detrimental when he gets to weeks 12-17 in the season. In fact, statistically more NFL players are placed on injure reserve or encounter injuries during the last 4 weeks of the season than any other time.

As you can see there is a ton of upside of selecting Larry Johnson in your first 3 fantasy picks based upon his proven ability, youth and rest he is gaining. All of which is a perfect formula for a huge statistical season.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Discussion, Offense. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.