Has Booker's value gone up or down?

[nomadic_stranger]

I had him on my bench on a few teams, expecting a possible breakout season, but now I'm confused. I'm guessing Miami might be selling out to the pass and I'm not sure if they are gonna have the running game to make it work. I am currently running to pick up Justin Gage in every league I'm in where he's available. Is Booker worth a bench spot or is it time to bail on anything Miami-flavored?

[Confucian Scholars]

I say bail. Booker was da man with da Bears but he'll be playing second fiddle down in Florida opposite Chris Chambers. Miami is a mess right now, especially at QB, and Marty Booker is not the answer to their offensive problems. They can't go from "Run Ricky Run" to "Catch Marty Catch" in one season. Not gonna happen. Nope; time to bail on Booker.

[KingGhidra]

Maybe it goes up slightly. Chambers has never caught 70 passes in a season before. Booker might be the #1 on this team, although he's making the switch pretty late in the pre-season. He'll probably struggle pretty early. Maybe the Fins plan on passing 600x this season. Imagine that.

[The Great Gambini]

I think his value goes down slightly, but still, how can you say abandon him? He's more consistent than many guys you'll find on waivers.

[Plindsey88]

It's impossible to say right now... The only position in Miami I was confident about was the defense, and even that has taken a hit in this deal...


My impressions of what will be going on in Miami this year are these:

1) Travis Minor will be the starting back, and we will see a Philadelphia style RB approach down there... With Minor getting the majority of the carries between the twenties, and some return duty, and if Rob Konrad is not injured, we will see more fullback carries going to him and Morris in the redzone...

2) Randy McMichael's stock is on the rise... With the lack of a power RB to pound it in in the redzone, look for McMichael to see lots of TD opportunities...

3) Neither Feidler nor Feeley makes for a good option... These guys are so close in their mediocrity that we could end up seeing a Spurrier-esque QBBC in Miami, with both guys seeing time, and the guy with the hot-hand QB-ing week to week....

4) On defense, I think Miami still has a secondary to be reckoned with... It remains to be seen what the loss of Ogunleye will do to the overall value of the team D... IMO, since he was holding out, anyways, most people should have Miami at about 4 in their rankings, and I don't think that changed very much, but we'll see, they might be slightly lower, now...

5) Chambers and Booker are both going to be question marks... Chambers is the better option, but just like the situation we had when Boston was healthy, there is no way of knowing how the addition of another impact WR will affect his value... He will probably see fewer looks, but probably less coverage, too... I think Booker's value is slightly lower in Miami than in Chicago, but not by much...

[madmike]

He does drop a little but I say hold him and see what Miami does with him. Playing #2 to Chambers he can still score good and with their RB situation who knows how much they'll be throwing.

[JerseyBearsGuy]

There is no way you can bail on him. You can't just drop a guy who put up good #'s, not great #'s, the past few seasons. I'm not saying that he is a #1 WR, but c'mon, droping him. I agree that his situation is different and his value does go down a little. But look who was throwing to him in Chicago the last few years not really much of a decline compaired to MIA. He will be there possesion receiver getting 80+ catches and a possible deep threat, while Chambers will be the main deep threat.

[Johnny Ballgame]

I'm a huge Booker fan and I say his value drops because of who he is playing with (Feely or Fiedler) and that awful O'line. I think you can't get rid of him though because I have a feeling Chambers is going to have an off year (I think he's on the Moulds every other year plan) so Booker will definitely pick up the slack. Hold on to him because you are not likely to get much value now on the waiver wire anyway.

[Members Only Jackets_ffc]

I say it goes up slightly....Booker will now get favorable matchups while Chambers gets the other teams best corners...In CHicago he had Grossman and would not get good matchups.

[Kensat30]

It's hard to say how the team change will affect Booker this season.

Part of me wants to say that it will help him tremendously:

1) Booker now has an accomplished playmaker lining up on the other side of the field with him.
2) Should increase his yards per catch average tremendously now that he is away from the Bear's. We won't be seeing too many swing passes to Booker on 2nd and 10 where the team expects him to make an 8 yard run after the catch.
3) The Dolphin's are still heads and shoulders above the Bear's in terms of scoring potential (even without Ricky)


The other side of me looks at the things working against Booker:
1) New system, playbook, and QB could take time to work things out
2) Much tougher division, instead of the relatively easy defenses of Minnesota and Green Bay, he now faces NE and Buffalo twice a year
3) Reception total should take a big hit because he is no longer the sole WR option on his team.




Combine all these things together and I can come up with these thoughts about Marty Booker for this season. He's going to total significantly less than 100 receptions this year, but his increased yards per average should help to offset this. When the Dolphin's struggle, Booker is going to be a huge boom/bust player week to week and should not be relied on as an every week starter. He is no longer the steal of the draft in the 8th or 9th round, but he should still be a good value pick at that point in the draft.