Empty the Bench

Without question, Week 5 saw the most Sea Hammock candidates of the season. Larry Johnson managing just 2 yards on 7 carries? Pathetic. Damon Huard’s 19.2 QB Rating? Blech. Donovan McNabb’s 196 yards passing with 0 TDs? Frustrating. Sage Rosenfels turning the ball over on the last three possessions of the game to cough up the lead and allow the Colts to cover the spread at the last minute? Maddening. Santana Moss’s 0 receptions for 0 yards? Appalling. Vernon Davis 0 receptions for 0 yards? Actually not that surprising. Still, it was a hard choice to be sure.

Those are all worthy candidates, but we went with the guy who came into the season with the highest expectations and absolutely laid an egg: LaDainian Tomlinson.

Sure, Adrian Peterson and Brian Westbrook were tempting. But those guys have injury histories and seem to get nicked up every game. Not LT2 though, he’s as solid as a rock. He came into the season having played in 111 of a possible 112 games over seven seasons with at least 15 TDs in each of the last six seasons. You drafted him because he was the “safe” pick. He was the guy who would be reliable week in and week out. Let somebody else deal with “Questionable” and “Probable” and “DNP,” you’ll take LT and never look back.

Fantasy football laughs in the face of “safe” and “solid” and “reliable.”

In a game where the Chargers desperately needed Tomlinson to just be mediocre to beat the lowly Dolphins, he was terrible. He was the 22nd best fantasy RB on the field – and that’s before Monday Night Football and with several byes in effect. Let’s face it, the burst is gone. The explosiveness is gone. The moves look tired. The former MVP looks sluggish, tentative, and hurt.

The final line in Sunday’s loss for both San Diego and your fantasy team: 5 receptions for just 22 yards along with only 12 rushes for 35 yards. That’s a paltry 2.9 YPC–not what we’ve come to expect from a guy who has averaged 4.5 YPC for his career. That brings his season YPC all the way down to 3.7, his lowest since a rookie campaign in 2001 when the Chargers were one of the worst teams in football. And even during that dismal season LT2 managed 77.3 rushing yards and 22.9 receiving yards per game, well above the 66.2 rushing yards and 16 receiving yards he’s putting up so far this season.

Adding injury to insult, Tomlinson aggravated the turf toe injury in the loss, leaving little reason to be optimistic he can return to former dominance in the weeks to come. From The San Diego Union-Tribune:

“I know my toe is hurt, but there is nothing I can do about it,” he said. “I just have to continue to go out there and fight.”

But there is no denying he is not the same, showing his trademark spinning move on just one 11-yard gain Sunday and totaling just 35 yards on the ground.

“The toe is a vital part of the foot,” said Tomlinson, who did lead the Chargers with five receptions (for 22 yards). “It’s something you need. When that part is injured and it lingers on, it takes away from you being able to be productive in certain things.”

The big question is, has he hit the wall? We know it happens fast for NFL running backs, especially those with a workload as heavy as LT’s has been. The guy has already notched 2,454 total carries and 473 receptions in his 7+ seasons in the league–how far away is he from being the next Larry Johnson or Shaun Alexander?

Sunday’s performance left your fantasy team with another notch in the L column, aggravated a notoriously lingering injury, and further torpedoed his trade value. It was another bad week in an already disappointing season, but Tomlinson does have one prestigious award under his belt in 2008: he’s ETB’s Sea Hammock of the Week for Week 5.

May God help you if you didn’t handcuff Darren Sproles.

Past Sea Hammocks of the Week:
- Week 1 Sea Hammock – Tom Brady
- Week 2 Sea Hammock – Hurricane Ike
- Week 3 Sea Hammock – Ronnie Brown
– Week 4 Sea Hammock – Jason Garrett

LaDainian Tomlinson Photo Credit: Icon SMI