FYI: Burress played his last game in Pittsburgh

[ljthockey]

Yeah with the aging wideout core of the chiefs he would be great there definalty the number one WIDE receiver. Well thats what im hoping for.

But I think he will go to baltimore there obviously going for a high profile reciever and Burress isnt as high as TO but he does have the talent of a top wideout.

[steelyeri]

I agree that he would probably be a great fit in K.C. and Atlanta. Baltimore also to a lesser degree mostly because Boller hasn't shown that he is a viable NFL starting QB.

[Kensat30]

I actually am a big fan of Burress. Despite the numbers he actually had a very good year this season. He put up good numbers in all of the games he started with Ben (and didn't get injured). I think he is a very talented WR and that he will be a big-time player somewhere else next year.

BTW, what makes you think Pitt won't resign him?

Pitt won't resign Burress because Plax doesn't want to play there anymore.

Think about it, Burress showed a couple seasons ago that he can be the big-time, big-play, big-hype NFL WR, but he doesn't get enough passes thrown his way in Pittsburgh to show his true talents. Think about, the Steeler's ran the ball a TON this season (just like every other season when their run game is effective). There are only so many passes to go around for players wearing black and gold. Hines Ward, the perennial 100 catch WR, even had trouble producing in this offense. Antawn Randel El gets the ball a lot more than other teams' #3 WR.. What is left for the 6'5" potential super star each game? About 3 to 4 catches if he's lucky.

Plaxico doesn't care about the money, he wants the ball. If you give him the money then he knows he's going to be utilized like a stud. Who knows if Plaxico is capable of putting up Chad Johnson like 85/1300/10 numbers every season. If he stays healthy for all 16 games, he's lucky if he sees 60 catches..

[Free Bagel]

I don't know about this year, but last season Plax had more than his fair share of balls come his way, most of which ended up on the ground in the endzone after deflecting off the palms of his hands.

[Azrael]

You know what really impressed me about him? When he caught that late TD pass, he just dropped the ball. Not even a smile. Barely a celebration. Many other receivers--hello, TO, Randy--would have celebrated their personal accomplishment despite their team losing.

That was classy.

Anyway, I imagine he could go back to Pitt--isn't he Ben's favorite target?

I can't remember T.O or Moss celebrating when there team was down by two scores.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Nick Barnett and William Henderson are the only 2 knuckle heads that I can recall this year that celebrated while they were getting their asses handed to them.

[MCG321]

You know what really impressed me about him? When he caught that late TD pass, he just dropped the ball. Not even a smile. Barely a celebration. Many other receivers--hello, TO, Randy--would have celebrated their personal accomplishment despite their team losing.

That was classy.

Anyway, I imagine he could go back to Pitt--isn't he Ben's favorite target?

I can't remember T.O or Moss celebrating when there team was down by two scores.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Nick Barnett and William Henderson are the only 2 knuckle heads that I can recall this year that celebrated while they were getting their asses handed to them.

Someone did against the Birds this year. I forget who.

[moochman]

I don't know about this year, but last season Plax had more than his fair share of balls come his way, most of which ended up on the ground in the endzone after deflecting off the palms of his hands.

Soooo you're saying that he should go to Seattle?

And as far as the celebrations while getting pummled, didn't Tico Duckett do a dance when he score to make it 14-35 or something this year?

[deluxe_247]

I think it's hard to say because we don't know how much Ben likes Randle El. It was pretty obvious that Ben loved throwing to a big target like Plax, which seemed to hurt Ward's numbers, but who knows if Ben will feel the same way about throwing to a completely different type of receiver?

i looked up the last 5 weeks of the steelers' regular season schedule and ward and randel-el had almost identical yardage numbers, and randel-el even had one more td...so i think its safe to say that ben is comfortable with him. i had a feeling they would be decent numbers because i owned ward and kept getting pissed that randel-el was stealin his touches i hope burress goes somewhere else, preferably baltimore...but i think the duo of ward-randel-el is solid.

guess it was a good thing that i just drafted randel-el with my last pick for a league next year. you know im hoping burress walks now

[Kensat30]

I don't know about this year, but last season Plax had more than his fair share of balls come his way, most of which ended up on the ground in the endzone after deflecting off the palms of his hands.

A high percentage of the passes to Burress are long range bombs. Not a very good situation to be put into when you're not even receiving the majority of the passes on offense. I'm not denying that Burress drops some balls on occasion. I'm not arguing that he is an elite all around WR. I'm just saying that if you put him into the right situation, Plax could easily put up top10 or even top5 numbers year in and year out. A very comparable WR in a totally different situation than Burress is Chad Johnson IMO.

Hines Ward is the man with the short to intermediate range passes in Pittsburgh. Add to that the fact that the Steeler's are historically a run first, tough defensive team, doesn't really bode well for a WR that primarily runs deep routes and sees a lot of coverage. Plaxico has the ability to put up a huge yards per catch average in that system, but only pedestrian overall stats unless the offense is really rolling. Compare his best year 2002 to 2004.

2002- 16games/78 rec(4.88per)/1325(82.8per)/<b>17.0avg</b>/7 TD(.44per)
2004- 11games/35 rec(3.18per)/698(63.5per/<b>19.9avg</b>/5 TD(.45per)

Burress actually improved on his play from his career year despite playing on a bum ankle for half the season! Except he was thrown the ball a career low amount of times. How many times were people aweing over Plaxico becoming the #1 option in Pitt with Roethlisburger at the helm? It seemed like that got derailed when Plax got injured in the 2nd half of the season, but the real story is that Plax was NEVER the #1 option on that team. His stats were so ridiculously good as a #2 WR that many people overlooked the fact that he was barely catching the ball more than 3 or 4 times a game.

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2002 was a best case scenario for Plaxico as the #1b WR and look what kind of production he put up. Plax's fall off in 2003 can be attributed more to Pittsburgh's lack of a running game and overall offensive success more than anything else. Look at the loss of production Hines Ward had with virtually the same amount of passes as the year before and a higher yards per average on his catches.

2002 Hines Ward: 168 targets/112 rec/<b>11.9avg</b> (112/1329/12)
2003 Hines Ward: 162 targets/95 rec/<b>12.2avg</b> (95/1163/10)

Now look at how big of a hit Plax's targets took and his subsequential "fall from grace" in the fantasy world.

2002 Plaxico Burress: 156 targets/78 rec/<b>17.0avg</b> (78/1325/7)
2003 Plaxico Burress: 135 targets/60 rec/<b>14.3avg</b> (60/860/4)
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How much of Plaxico's production is due to his talent versus situation? I'm of the opinion that Plax has enough talent to be a top10 WR in fantasy if he is put in the #1 WR role on a somewhat decent team. Simply put, Hines Ward is always going to be a barrier in the path to Plaxico's statistical success. Ward will ALWAYS get his in Pittsburgh while Plax plays second fiddle and catches the long balls. That is the reason Plax wants to move on, he wants a Chad Johnson/Hines Ward type opportunity. Give the man 150-170 targets and see what he can do. Throw the man the rock and give him a chance to prove himself.

There's plenty of other teams out there willing to give Plaxico his shot and I think it's time he moved on. Burress takes shots all the time for talking a big game and not putting up. I for one side with Plaxico..... Pittsburgh is not a friendly place for a talented WR not named Hines Ward.

[Ironhorse75]

I agree that he would probably be a great fit in K.C. and Atlanta. Baltimore also to a lesser degree mostly because Boller hasn't shown that he is a viable NFL starting QB.

Atlatna definitely needs a better receiver... but anyone going there better be able to swallow their pride and get most of their satisfaction in their paycheck. But who knows what the effect of a good receiver could have on their game. Crumpler was doing just fine.