FantasyNFL

The 10 Players Most Likely To Ruin Your Fantasy Football Season This Year

by Dan Fogarty | 4:39 pm, August 29th, 2012

NFL kickoff is only seven days away, meaning you’ll soon be drafting your fantasy football team. Make no mistake: Who you pick to be on your pretend football team will be the most important set of decisions you make this year.

To help you do just that, we’ve given you pointers on where to look for under-the-radar players that might help your team, but we’ve also given you some pointers on which players you shouldn’t touch. Today, we present a twist on that advice: guys you might expect to be your fantasy savior, but will actually wind up BREAKING YOUR PRECIOUS FANTASY HEARTS. Check them out below, and resist their charms.

Enable JavaScript to check out our fancy slideshow.

1.1. Darren McFadden

I know. I know. We had him on our sleepers list, and for good reason: when Run DMC is able to stay on the field, he's perhaps the best running back in the entire league (yes, the entire league). But staying on the field has never been his strong suit. He's missed at least three games in each of his four NFL seasons due to various injuries, and last year was sidelined for nine games with foot and ankle issues. Because he's so good, someone in your draft might reach for him in the middle-to-late first round. All they'll see is the 761 total yards and five TDs he racked up through the first six games of last season, but what they might get in return is another flukey injury and a crushed fantasy soul.

2.2. Maurice Jones-Drew

No one comes back from a holdout and produces, unless you're Emmitt Smith and it's 1993. MJD is the defending rushing champ, but he's still not signed, hasn't even met his head coach yet, and is still going in the first round. All of these things point towards unmitigated disaster. Avoid him.

3.3. Andre Johnson

Like most guys on this list, Andre Johnson's high likelihood of making your fantasy season a living nightmare has little to do with his actual skill. He's big, strong, fast, and smart, and when he's healthy, he's fantastic: 21 catches for 316 yards and two TDs through three games last season. The problem was that he wasn't healthy: a torn hammie required surgery, and he played in only three of the final 12 games last season, thus killing your team if you picked him first. Because of his potential for big plays, he'll still go early. And because of his potential for injury, he could very well make you cry.

4.4. Michael Vick

Thanks, Matthew Berry. You really hooked me up last year.

5.5. Michael Turner

For a 30-year-old running back on the decline, Turner's being taken awfully early: fourth round in most leagues, third round in some others. The only way you end up with him is by panicking. You've taken a quarterback and an elite tight end with the first two picks, gone wide receiver with the third, and then said, "Oh, crap, I don't have a running back." You see Michael Turner's name, draft him because that's what he is -- a name -- and kiss your production at the RB1 slot goodbye. You poor, poor bastard.

6.6. Frank Gore

Toss him in the same boat as Turner: older running backs on the decline who people will draft too early as a result of name recognition. Couple Gore's diminishing workload (15.9 offensive touches per game in the second half of last season) with a more crowded backfield (Brandon Jacobs, LaMichael James, and the emergent Kendall Hunter) and you've got a guy who will probably kill your team if he's your RB1.

7.7. Calvin Johnson

He was on the cover of Madden. Have you heard of the Madden curse? It is real, my friend. If you take him in the first round, you are inviting destiny to sneak up on you and pants you in front of your friends.

8.8. Larry Fitzgerald

It's not Larry's fault that he might ruin your season, it's whoever's throwing the ball to him. A top-5 wideout in real life, Fitz possesses the size, route-running ability, and hands that coaches dream of. Unfortunately, because his quarterback will be either Kevin Kolb or John Skelton, he's not worth that late first round/early second round pick it will take to get him. And with WR so deep this year, spending your first pick on him could hurt your roster irrevocably.

9.9. Chris Johnson

In every single fantasy league in the country, Chris Johnson singlehandedly crushed one team's hopes and dreams. After holding out and coming into camp woefully out of shape last year, Johnson exceeded 64 yards rushing only once in his first eight games. For a guy who was chosen first overall in some leagues, it was a historically bad flop, and if you chose him in the first round you probably didn't recover. This year, he's going in the late first round/early second, but still has the potential to ruin your season. Why? His O-line was bad last year, and will once again be bad this year.

10.10. Eli Manning

As a Giants fan, this hurts. Eli is a fantastic quarterback, one of the best clutch players in the game, and is more bang-able than Tom Brady according to some scientific studies. But despite Eli's remarkable year last year, he still has the tendency to sometimes wake up and say "You know what? Today's a great day for me to throw five picks and reallly screw the daylights out of your fantasy team." We love him, but there's no other quarterback that can look so good on one play and so awful on the next. Pick him, and you tempt the dreaded "Eli Face": a mix of "I thought Cruz was open" and "I just smelled a fart in an elevator." Don't tempt the Eli Face, because the Eli Face will ruin you.