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WR Chris Chambers Trade Fantasy Impact
Source: Jason Wood, FootballGuys.com

Where does this put Chambers now in terms of fantasy value?

Through six games, Chambers has 31 receptions for 415 yards, but zero TDs. His numbers project to:

* 83 receptions
* 1,107 yards

Its difficult to look at his situation in San Diego and not expect Chambers to improve, right? Well, lets be careful here.

Targets = Opportunity

Through six games, Chambers have been targeted a whopping 66 times. Thats the 4th most targets in the league. You can be sure that Chambers WILL NOT see as many passes thrown his way in San Diego.

1. The Chargers run the ball a lot more
2. Antonio Gates has been targeted 54 times; leading the team
3. LaDainian Tomlinson has been targeted 38 times
4. The Chargers WRs have been targeted 66 times COMBINED through Week Six

The fact is, Chambers will go from being one of THE most targeted receivers in football to somewhere toward the bottom of WR1s in the league. So the real question fantasy owners need to ask themselves is, can Chambers do MORE with each target? The bad news is Chambers has always had hands of stone.

Hands of stone. And the bad news is Chambers has been consistently poor at converting targets into catches. His career best rate was, as a rookie, when he caught 53% of his targets. This year hes running at 47%, bout 15-20% lower than most elite receivers.

Whats the silver lining?

I can see two potential areas of encouragement. 1) Norv Turner coaches Chambers for two years in Miami; including the 2003 season when Chambers finished as the 11th best fantasy wideout. 2) Chambers has ZERO TDs right now, but has historically been a good TD producer. I would be surprised if Turner doesnt find a way to get him at least 5 or 6 TDs the rest of the way.

So whats the verdict? If you own Chris Chambers, its probably a slight upgrade for you if he can score touchdowns, but in PPR leagues his value almost assuredly takes a dip for a few weeks, if not the entire season. If you were starting Vincent Jackson on a consistent basis, you probably want to look elsewhere. It also means Philip Rivers (who hopefully has been on your bench) might now become a viable option at QB. On the Dolphins side, this puts even more pressure on Ronnie Brown to carry the load. Hes been too dominant to sit, but you might want to give more consideration to a trade at this point. Ted Ginn probably is the biggest beneficiary, in that the Fins have absolutely no reason not to start him and let him get a baptism by fire the rest of the way.

[Garnett]

As pathetic as my WR core is, he'll still be a prominant player on my squad.

[dolphindude13]

I disagree that Chambers has hands of stone, IMO he simply lacks concentration. If you've followed him as closely as I have since 01 when he was drafted you may notice he's on a lot of highlight videos for amazing, acrobatic catches but he'll drop the 10 yd slant route that he could have went 60 for the score. That says to me a lack of concentration. I don't think he'll ever be a #1 in FF at best a 2 and maybe even a good 3. But I'd take a flyer on him till we see how he's gonna be used.

[BoltzRule]

Well he won't be the focus of defenses, he'll be #3 on defenses to stop list so he'll see a lot more single coverage. Whether that will result in better fantasy production out of him we'll see.

[DoubleC]

In the GIF league on Yahoo, he's my 3rd WR behind Randy Moss and Steve Smith. I didn't count on him anyway...