Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The Pittsburgh Steelers have put together a solid receiving corps for this season despite losing two receivers in the offseason. One addition that the team has brought in is Lance Moore. Moore is going to be a huge help for the Steelers, but he won’t help many fantasy football teams.
Moore is coming to the Steelers from the New Orleans Saints, the team he had spent his entire career with. While with the Saints, Moore was nothing more than a possession receiver. He was never a big-play guy, and was only valuable in fantasy football for his receptions in PPR leagues. Now on a new team, Moore won’t even be valuable on any fantasy squad.
Moore is going to be replacing Jerricho Cotchery in the Steelers’ offense this season. This is something fantasy owners might point to as a good thing since Cotchery had 10 touchdowns with the Steelers last season, but Moore is not going to put up those sorts of numbers. First of all, that year was a fluke for Cotchery because he never put up those scoring numbers with the Steelers or even when he was with the New York Jets as a starter. Secondly, Cotchery is a taller receiver at 6-foot-1 than Moore is at 5-foot-8 so it’s not as likely that Moore is used as a red zone target.
With that in mind, it does not seem likely that Moore will put up Cotchery’s numbers from last season.
Another problem with Moore will be his usage. Cotchery was mostly used as a possession receiver on third down and as a slot receiver. That is the role that Moore will be used in, so he will not be on the field consistently. Unlike Cotchery, Moore will be replaced in some of those slot situations. The Steelers have looked at second-year player Justin Brown at that position in the preseason, and they also have rookie Martavis Bryant that they plan to use in the red zone.
All of these options take away from Moore’s playing time, and that takes away his chance to rack up fantasy stats.
So looking at all of this, I’m selling on the idea of taking Moore in any fantasy leagues. He’s not going to have enough playing time to make an impact fantasy wise. He’s just going to be one of those players who is critical for his real team but irrelevant for your fantasy team. Moore could end up being fantasy relevant after a few games, but he’ll have to prove it.
Until he does that, I suggest that you don’t draft Moore and use a roster spot for a player with more fantasy potential.
Justin Broyles is a Pirates writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @Tweets_ByJ, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
