Todd Heap is in trouble

Todd Heap was one of the sneaky, spectacular fantasy busts of 2008. Often unavailable during his career, Heap had always been productive when he played. Until last year.
It wasn't like Heap occasionally showed flashes of his old self. His high yardage mark for the year was 58, topping 40 yards only three times. Heap was the replacement level tight end sitting atop your waiver wire. He was David Martin.
There were some excuses for the numbers: he focused primarily on blocking because of Baltimore's young tackles and Joe Flacco brought down the entire passing game.
Watching Heap, I couldn't shake the feeling that he looked very old for 28 years old. The bad signs piled up around him. Cam Cameron knows how to maximize tight ends, yet Heap was an afterthought. There was an October Baltimore Sun report that Ravens coaches thought Heap was soft for milking a preseason injury. A February report that Baltimore wanted to upgrade at tight end added more concern.
Baltimore's agreement in principle with L.J. Smith is another very bad sign for Heap. In theory, Smith is an all-hands, no-block tight end. (Eagles fans would argue that he's a no-hands, no-block tight end). When Smith is on the field, he's only going to steal targets and allow Heap to block.
While Joe Flacco's improvement will help, Heap and Smith will likely cancel each other out for fantasy leaguers. Once an annual top-five player, Heap might get comfortable on the top of the waiver wire. Right next to David Martin.





Comments
you do realize that the ravens kept heap into block for their rookie QB most of the time last year, right?
Posted by: mike | March 18, 2009 06:30 PM
WzsUPt comment5 ,
Posted by: Joigpyre | June 27, 2009 12:00 PM
WzsUPt comment5 ,
Posted by: Joigpyre | June 27, 2009 12:00 PM