Fantasy Football 2011: The Danny Amendola Question

Drafting a wide receiver from the 2011 St. Louis Rams in a fantasy football league might seem impossibly desperate, but if there’s one thing most fantasy football players are, it’s impossibly desperate. Which is why Danny Amendola‘s suitability as a fantasy receiver has become a hot topic of discussion, coming up most recently on Turf Show Times. The answer is a pretty obvious one, when you think about it: Amendola, who caught 85 not-especially-useful balls last year as Sam Bradford‘s pressure-release valve, is a nice pick-up, but only if you get credit for each reception.

It’s a bit of a perverse incentive, like those fantasy baseball leagues that track stolen bases but not caught stealing, but assuming Josh McDaniels’s two-tight-end packages don’t suck up all the short-range passes, Amendola, who is sure-handed and not much else, seems set to benefit enormously from not being double-teamed at all times, as he was at the end of the year. McDaniels’s big-play offense will keep opposing defenses from lingering on Amendola, and that means more five-to-seven-yard receptions for your favorite would-be Wes Welker.