Fantasy Focus – Travis Henry

Photo Courtesy – ESPN (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Travis Henry, just as much as young Jay Cutler, has everyone in Denver thinking Super Bowl again. The few doubters he had were silenced this past Monday as they saw him break tackle after tackle and pull out tons of yardage every snap for the orange and blue. Everyone’s been talking about Henry – from Adam Schein and Lofa Tatupu (Seahawks linebacker) to the Broncos on the practice field.

But, very surprisingly, the fantasy football sources out there aren’t joining the Henry bandwagon. That’s where this post is going – how will new Bronco Travis Henry do this year, from a fantasy perspective? The opinions are mixed – some bitter fantasy pros can’t let themselves believe the Broncos running back-by-committee philiosophy will take a big enough side step to allow Henry to reach his fantasy potential. They have him commonly slotted in the mid-to-late 2nd round. Others are drinking the orange and blue Kool Aid and picking him in the top 5 or 6 overall. I’m implementing a new rule for my teams this year – try NOT to draft Broncos in my fantasy leagues, because I get caught up in the upside come draft day (and throughout the year, I have trouble separating myself as a fantasy team owner and Broncos fan… I wanted to bench Larry Johnsonevery time he played us and always felt stupidly guilty for not doing so). But if Henry is sitting there, and I have one of the later top 10 picks, I think it’s plain foolish not to nab Henry and “sleep like a baby.”

I asked myself: Where do the big sites have him ranked, though? The answer may surprise you (using most basic rules, no points-per-catch):

ESPN: 14th
FFToday.com: 15th
FFToolbox.com: 15th
Yahoo!: 13th
NFL.com: 12th
FantasyGuru.com: 8th

I must say all of these sites (except for the last one – more on that later) are simply out of their minds. Willis McGahee is ranked higher than Henry in several of these! How do you justify that kind of thinking?

Looking at some small potatoes free fantasy resources, the rankings get worse instead of better. This web site actually has Henry ranking below Cadillac Williams at 25 – are you freaking kidding me?! This site has to have some popularity… it was among the top listed pages on Google upon searching for “fantasy football.” Another “expert” site, also a high hit on Google, had a mock draft where Henry fell to the third round, behind the likes of Marques Colston and Buffalo rookie Marshawn Lynch. Simply foolish.

I’m not a fantasy expert… I’ve been playing for two years and have had some success, but I don’t know how these sites can be thinking that Travis Henry won’t score more fantasy points than Marshawn Lynch this year.

One site, FantasyGuru.com, which just happens to be the one and only site I pay my hard-earned money to read, agrees with my optimism, as you can tell by the site owner’s blog post here. He’s asking why everyone else – all the experts, the free sites, EVERYONE – isn’t jumping on the Henry bandwagon as well? This guy is a seasoned pro, and I honestly think he’s probably the smartest guy in fantasy football – his name is John Hansen, and he has a radio show on Friday nights on Sirius Satellite Radio, and from there I got hooked to everything he offers. Highly recommended.

Mark this down, gentlemen – if Henry stays healthy, he will tote the rock for Denver en route to around 1,500 yards. Give him at least 12 touchdowns while you’re at it. I feel like those are the LOW expectations for Henry this year… the sky is really the limit.

I said before, I’m trying to implement a new rule this season – DON’T DRAFT BRONCOS. I don’t think I can help myself if he’s still on the board late in the first round in any of my 3 leagues.