Terrell Owens was impressive in his workouts, now can he impress on the field?
In a move that comes as a bit of a surprise the Seattle Seahawks signed the outspoken Terrell Owens yesterday to a one-year contract after the veteran free agent impressed the team in an individual earlier this week.
The signing is a little surprising in part because the Seahawks recently signed former 49ers wide receiver Braylon Edwards to a one-year deal and with current veterans on the roster such as Sidney Rice, Doug Baldwin, Golden Tate and Ben Obomanu, the timing is a bit curious.
Therefore, the biggest question when trying to determine Owners fantasy football value for the 2012 NFL season is going to be figuring out just how big his role will be in Seattle.
Even though Owens did put up some solid fantasy numbers in his last NFL season with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2010 when he caught 72 passes for 983 yards and scored nine touchdowns, do not forget Owens has since dealt with a serious knee injury and is also 38 years old. Very few receivers have at his age have made much of an impact at the wide receiver position and no matter how good Owens looked in workouts, we simply won’t know how much he has left in the tank until we see him on the field.
However, we do know some things about the Seahawks receiver situation and it seems clear that even with the signing of Owens, the two most targeted players in the Seattle passing this year should be Sidney Rice and Doug Baldwin. Rice struggled through an injury riddled initial season in Seattle, yet we all know what he is capable of and when he was on the field last year, he flashed signs of his old dominant self.
Baldwin on the other hand was extremely impressive as a rookie catching 51 passes for 788 yards and four touchdowns as an undrafted rookie last season out of Stanford.
Therefore, Rice (if healthy) and Baldwin should be the top two options for the Seahawks at wide receiver next season, yet there is still a chance for Owners to carve out a role with the Seahawks as their third wide receiver, which would give the veteran some possible fantasy value but at this point, relying on Owens for any kind of fantasy production in 2012 is going to be extremely risky until we know more about his health and what he still has left in the tank.
