Fantasy Armageddon or Fantasy Juggernaut? QB Joey Harrington Breaks Out
Some people - very often, fantasy owners - have no patience. They want to see QBs blast off from the starting gates and tear up the league, right away beginning week 1. But it doesn’t always happen that way. When a player is learning a new offense (like Matt Leinart in Arizona or Trent Green in Miami), there is a process of becoming comfortable that needs to be gone through - Joey Harrington in Atlanta gives us a fine example of a player that is increasingly becoming comfortable in his team’s offense. Let’s look at his first 3 games from this season (his first 3 in coach Petrino’s system).
- Week 1: 23/32 for 199 yards passing, 0 TDs and 2 interceptions
- Week 2: 12/20 for 200 yards passing, 0 TDs and 0 interceptions
- Week 3: 31/44 for 361 yards passing, 2 TDs and 0 interceptions
That’s a pretty good looking growth curve from where I sit. Harrington has cut down on the turnovers (0 interceptions over the last 2 weeks), and this week he was sacked just once (after taking 13 sacks in the first 2 games) - Harrington got the ball out quickly, and showed good evasiveness the few times he was pressured by the Panthers, side-stepping rushers and delivering catch able balls to the receivers.
Another positive to note about Harrington and the Falcons’ offense is his continuing, growing rapport with Roddy White (7/127/1 receiving last week, after hauling in 4/29/0 during week 1 and 4/81/0 in week 2). With a bonafide #1 WR and the All-Pro TE Alge Crumpler (plus Warrick Dunn and Jerious Norwood to catch balls out of the backfield), it appears that Harrington will go into battle with a respectable set of targets each week.
If Harrington is on your league’s waiver wire and you have a need at QB #2 or as a bye-week player for your starter, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick him up.
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