Fantasy Impact: Bryant Johnson

July 15, 2008 at 7:17 am | Article by Paul Hickey |

Fantasy Impact: Bryant Johnson Fantasy football draft guides and player rankings are definitely an important part of preparing for the upcoming fantasy football season - no question. However, it’s important to take an in-depth look at some players who may outperform where they are ranked. For the record, we believe San Francisco’s Bryant Johnson falls in that category.

The fantasy football world already has Chad, Calvin and Andre, but it needs to make way for yet another Johnson to be a part of its collective starting line-up…and his name is Bryant. Yep, that’s right. The man that hasn’t caught more than 49 balls in a single season during his five year NFL career is about to nearly double that mark this season. Before I give you the reasons why, let me just remind you that we made the following predictions regarding breakout wide receivers over the last two years.

1. We said Marques Colston would break out in 2006, when nobody had ever even heard of the guy.

2. We said Detroit’s Roy Williams would breakout in 2006, but struggle a bit in 2007 - look up his stats in those years.

3. We said Cleveland’s Braylon Edwards would hit his stride in his third season and become one of fantasy football’s elite receivers.

4. We even said that Brandon Marshall would become a breakout star in 2007.

5. We drafted Wes Welker in nearly the last round of every one of our expert leagues last year.

Okay, so now that you realize that we’re good at predicting breakout WRs, maybe you’ll listen to our case for Johnson closely.

Since being selected in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft, Johnson wasn’t really a bust in Arizona, but he was hindered from reaching his true potential due to the fact that he had to play third fiddle to two of the league’s brightest young pass catchers - Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin. The fact that Johnson caught no less than 35 balls in each of his five NFL seasons with Arizona, including 40 balls for 740 yards and four TDs in 2006, when both Boldin and Fitz missed time, tells us that he’s capable of contributing.

Whenever he was called upon to replace one or the other in the Card’s line-up, he delivered, including a six catch, 80 yard performance in Week 5 filling in for Boldin, and 12 catches for nearly 150 yards and two TDs over a three game stretch during Weeks 12-14 in which Boldin was limited.

Point being - he can produce when given the opportunity.

Also, the 26 year old is 6′3″, and fundamentally sound as he enters his new role as the number one WR for the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners and new OC Mike Martz have been extremely impressed with Johnson’s work ethic and route running thus far this off-season.

Remember, Martz is the man who made Torry Holt a superstar, revamped Roy Williams’ career and turned Mike Furrey - a former WR turned safety - into a 98 catch wide receiver. Even Shaun McDonald came out of obscurity to record a career year under Martz in 2007.

Basically, if you can create separation and run good routes, you’ll catch 85 or more balls playing WR in a Martz offense. Johnson can and will absolutely do that.

Johnson critics may say that Isaac Bruce may catch more balls, due to his familiarity with the Martz system, or that Arnaz Battle may be the team’s leading WR due to his similarities to Furrey and McDonald. You may even hear Vernon Davis’ name mentioned as someone who will line up at WR. Not that all of those players won’t also benefit from Martz being in town, but Johnson will be the most consistent. Regardless of who ends up winning the QB battle - Alex Smith or Shaun Hill - Johnson will be their favorite target and will reward fantasy owners who take a chance on him in 2008. He should be available near the end of most seasonal drafts, which is where we also grabbed Brandon Marshall in our expert leagues last year.

For the record, we like Bryant Johnson in 2008. Trust us.