Fantasy Week 12 - My kingdom for a receiver

Where have you gone, wide receivers?

It’s a question many fantasy owners are asking as we roll past the 10-game mark of this NFL season, and one there might not be a good answer for.

Right now there’s exactly one double-digit scoring wideout in the league, Anquan Boldin of Arizona. The rest, everyone from Cardinals teammate Larry Fitzgerald to Randy Moss to Terrell Owens, have no more than seven.

Yes, that’s right, all the would-be studs of the suddenly pass-crazy NFL predicted to haul in anywhere from 12 to 15 scoring tosses this season will be lucky to match Boldin’s current total by Week 17.

It seems so long ago that Tom Brady and Moss were turning pro football into their own personal video game, filling the air with TD after TD at a rate heretofore unseen this side of the Arena League.

In 2007, they connected an unprecedented 23 times while Moss was amassing nearly 1,500 receiving yards and Brady was throwing an unheard of 50 total TD passes. Fantasy owners lucky enough to own one of them basked in the sunny warmth of their torrid output, secure in the knowledge that a playoff spot was theirs for the taking.

Other owners who coveted the fortunes of their rivals were already planning how to still grab a decent running back after snatching Brady and Moss with two of the top five picks in the 2008 draft.

And no one could blame them. The NFL rule book has been rewritten over the past decade to make it virtually impossible for offenses not to pile up mountains of yards and points through the air. The Brady-to-Moss connection showed us all what might lie ahead for other talented pass-catch tandems.

Moss was in a class by himself in that record-setting season, but a lot of those behind him were putting up very good numbers. The 10 WRs that trailed Moss in receiving TDs all had at least 10.

At the current rate, only Detroit’s Calvin Johnson, who is second in the league with seven TD receptions, is projected to join Boldin in the double-digit club by season’s end. Three or four more could reach that level, most likely Fitzgerald, Owens and possibly Atlanta’s Roddy White, but that’s about it.

What has happened to all the receiving touchdowns? Well, the short answer is nothing. Teams are still scoring through the air at close to the same pace they have for the past 10 or 15 years.

But a deeper look at the stats shows those touchdowns have been spread out much more. Consider the pass-happy San Diego Chargers: They lead the league with 21 passing TDs, yet no WR has more than five (Chris Chambers).

Part of the reason for that is Antonio Gates (the best tight end in the league and team leader with six TDs), while five other Chargers have receiving TDs.

Defensive coordinators are also notorious for figuring out ways to stem rising offensive tides, and this year is no different. You can bank on the fact that every DC in the league dissected last season’s Patriots offense ad nauseam to find ways to counteract the ripple effect that would follow this season.

Perhaps the biggest reason for these blunted air attacks has been the number of injuries to high-profile QBs. Brady’s season ended minutes after it started, while Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning is just now shaking off the effects of two off-season knee surgeries.

Tony Romo’s little finger put Dallas in dire straits for a month; Cincinnati’s Carson Palmer has been shelved for what was shaping up to be a miserable year; Seattle’s Matt Hasselbeck – even when healthy – has been throwing to scout-team receivers; and Derek Anderson, while not injured, was a pain to watch even before being benched in Cleveland.

It all adds up to a weird sort of situation fantasy-wise, where no one really has an advantage. The resulting playing field is so level that most owners are dealing with the same situations, although a lot of those Moss owners might argue that their top-five pick is pretty much a waste. Everybody at this point has ended up with a bunch of five-TD, 600-700 yard guys giving them a few meager points each week.

Who knew we’d all be stuck with a bunch of Bernard Berrian clones?

Fantasy football “expert” Steve McDaniel was the proud owner of eighth-round pick Braylon Edwards’ 16 TDs in 2007. Unfortunately, he’s also the not-so-proud owner of second-round pick Edwards’ three TDs in 2008.