A.J. Feeley is the player in question.

Mattman00 is FOR Feeley being a valuable fantasy QB this season
Glassman is AGAINST Feeley being a valuable fantasy QB this season

Do your best to convince us your side is the right one.

"He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin!"
--Horace

Anyone remember last year, when the Panthers were really high on Jake Delhomme? Then, before you can say "cajun", he's leading them to the SuperBowl.

Sure, the defense had a little something to do with it . . .

Now Miami, known for their Defense and running game goes out and aquires a backup QB with little NFL playing time experience. I'm sure a lot of fantasy footballers are again saying, "WTF?"

Does anyone see any similarities here?

Hmmmm, a defensive minded team with a workhorse running back and a stud yet-to-breakout wr. (see Chris Chambers) aquires a little known backup QB, buried behind a solid starter. Sound familiar?

But wait, there's more . . . Miami may have made the steal of the season by acquiring David Boston for a SIXTH round pick.

Boston has been a 1,000 yard receiver four years running (if you project his starts to 16).

It was only 3 years ago that he posted monster numbers with 98 catches for 1600 yards and 8 TDs. There's no telling what he'll do in Miami, but he finally has a chance to play for a contender and I'm betting he takes advantage of it.

So, let's review . . .

Miami sees what Carolina did and finally decides to put a player with some real talent in at QB. They add a #1 WR for the price of a 6th round pick, and install a vertical passing game perfectly suited for Chris Chambers . . . and they did it very quietly.

This seems like the perfect "under the radar" setup that the Panthers had last year, and it could very well mean some bling in Miami and on your team if you take Feely with a late pick.

Well, I could start by saying that I don't think it is possible for any QB to be good under Wanda and win this argument. But for arguments sake, I will throw out a couple other points.


As far as a valuable fantasy player, your Delhomme relationship is pretty weak. Delhomme at bast was ranked 15 at Qb last year in my leagues. He was good enough to get them there, but his stats were not spectactular, and that was with a better offense than Miami had.

So, now lets get back to the Miami and Feely situation. Wanda always has been and always will be a run first coach. Coaches don't change their ways very often. His play calling is conservative at best. I am not sure they have more than a couple plays in their playbook for passes beyond 25 yards.

They have Ricky, which is their saving grace. The problem is the front line was so bad that many teams did not have to stack the line against him because the defense was always 3 yards deep into the backfield. This left a linebacker and safety to always be able to drop back into coverage. Not a good situation for a qb that is going to be under pressure early and often.

The Dolphins did address some needs on the offensive line in the draft and FA. But rarely is a mid first round lineman going to make a huge impact. To make it even less relevent they took an interior lineman. Don;t get me wrong, they needed him, but he won't be one of the guys effecting the pass rush that much. That would be FA John Sinclair of the Rams. He just about single handedly ended Kurt Warner's career. He can't block anybody.

So now to Feely. He has a few pluses working for him. David Boston when healthy and motivated is as dominant of a WR that there is in the game. So that gives him 2 games where he will have a great receiver. On the other side you have Chambers. He had a breakout season last year FINALLY. But, here is the problem, they bring in Boston, so the number of balls heading his way will now decrease. Second, he will be running some different routes now to hopefully try and stretch the field. But with a weak line, the chances of him getting deep balls on any consistant basis is pretty much 0. One good season doesn't make you a good receiver anyway, I still have questions if he can reproduce the kind of numbers he had last year, even with a marginally better qb than Fiddler.

Now Feely. He is coming into a new situation. That is the first downside. Second, he has had limited playing experience, and will be under pressure alot and on his back. What little chemistry his is able to create with the receivers will be tested early once real defenses start knocking him on his tail on virtually 90% of pass plays.

As a Dolphin fan, I would like to think I am fighting a losing battle here. But it is simply not fair to Feely to think he can come into a new situation with a very weak line and expect him to put up monster numbers with to of the biggest Jekyll and Hyde receivers in the league. If he breaks into the top 15 QBs in fantasy this year I would be shocked.

Jay Fiedler has never been a top fantasy QB. He is probably the definition of "adequate".

Looking back on the past 3 seasons, Fiedler has thrown for roughly 3,200 yards and 20 TDs (actual stats for 2001, projected stats to 16 games for 2002-2003).

One thing that everyone seems to agree on is that Feely will be better than Fiedler, even if only marginally.

I still have to go back to the additions to this team. If the O-line was bad last year and has been improved this year, if there are truly 2 capable receivers on the team, and if we can all agree that Feely has a bit more talent than Fiedler, how can we say that Feely will not "be a valuable fantasy football player" this year?

No one is expecting this guy to outperform Culpepper or Manning . . . But can he do better than Brad Johnson or Jeff Garcia? I think it's entirely possible. All of them can be in the 3,500 yd. 20+ TD range, but Feely can be had for a much later draft pick.

In leagues where 2 QBs are started, someone can make a good choice in taking this guy as a #2. In leagues with 1 QB, Feely still has a chance to contribute.

The offensive line won't be that much better if any this year. Sinclair is terrible and he will be starting. The two rookies are not even guaranteed to start. Carey may, but he will go through growing pains even if he does.

I agree that Feely is a better QB than Fiedler. But Fiedler has never been a good QB. His TD to INT ration is almost an even 1:1. With other QBs with teams, they at least have some chemistry and know the system well enough to put up respectable numbers.

As long as Wanda is the coach, you will not see any Miami QB go for 3500 yards. That just won't happen. With the offensive line suspect, I think he will be lucky to stay alive long enough to reach 2500 to be honest.

In a 1 QB league, he is a low end backup at Best. Probably somewhere between 18-25. In a 2 QB league, ya, maybe he is able to start, but that is kinda like the hockey playoffs, only the really really sucky ones don't make it.

Just to throw out one more thing that is going to be working against Feely is the passing defenses he will be up against. 8 of his games will be against teams in the upper third of pass defense teams, while only 4 games are against defenses in the bottom third, with 4 games against teams ranked between 13-18.

While I would love to see this guy succeed, he is fighting an uphill battle. To say he is a possible starter in a league that only starts 1 Qb is out there. If he breaks into the top 15 in fantasy value he will be over achieving. To be honest, I think he is a fringe starter in a league that starts 2 Qbs.

Ultimately, it goes back to whether he will have any "value" this year (see first post).

I guess it depends on your definition of value. I think we've got it about right by saying he's a servicable backup in 1 QB leagues and a #2 in 2 QB leagues.

The biggest plus for Feely is that he is expected to struggle, which means he can be had for next to nothing. Again, going back to value, drafting Feely as the #20+ QB taken and getting #15-20 production out of him is still pretty good.