If you need a refresher on the rules for the series or a run down of previous match-ups? Here is the rules and history thread:
"Close Calls 2006" - A Sportsoutlaw.com Exclusive
Remember, this is based on re-draft leagues.
Today's Match-up:

Santana Moss - WR - Wash *vs* Plaxico Burress - WR - NYG

Last Year's Stats:
Santana Moss - 16 gms - 84 rec - 1483 yds - 9 TD's
Plaxico Burress - 16 gms - 76 rec - 1214 yds - 7 TD's

In today's "Close Call" we look at 2 #1 WR's on two passing offenses that took great strides in 2005. Will Washington's QB situation remain stable enough for Moss to repeat his 2005 numbers? Can Eli continue to progress, and will Burress reap the benifits of his progression? These are some of the questions you will need to answer in today's "Close Call."

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lets see... last year moss had 275 yards and 2 TDs more than plaxico already... plus plaxico had 200+ yards and 3 TDs in one game, otherwise a VERY mediocre receiver... and only one of these guys is feuding with his young QB.

its mind boggling to me that this one is close. i know the ADP is, but whatever. any team that counts on burress to be its #1 WR this season is a losing team.

I think that this one pretty easily goes to Burress for a couple of reasons. 1) We have no clue if Brunell is going to be able to make it through another season with his age, making an unstable QB situation in Wash.
2) Washington got 2 more proven receivers on their team this offseason, who will get some balls that Moss would have gotten. Moss has to competer for catches with Randle El, Lloyd, and Cooley who emerged late last season
3) Plaxico is really one of two viable options for Manning to throw to this year, so he will get a large chunk of the receptions in NY from an emerging star at QB.
Overall, I think this one is easily Plaxico.

Personally, I like both wide receivers. However, if I need to pick one or the other. I would have to go with Plaxico Burress. As mentioned by titansfan, Moss is coming into a situation now that he is not the only viable receiver on the field with the signing of Lloyd and Randle El. Burress and Manning will be able to mend any fences that may be torn down, as mentioned by Da Bomb. Burress just has too much potential at his height and speed to be a benefit to any FF team.

giants receiving options, in order:
1) shockey
2) tiki
3) plaxico
4) toomer
5) sinorice moss

redskins' receiving options, in order:
1) santana
2) cooley
3) lloyd
4) portis
5) randle-el

also, fwiw, brunell threw only 1 less TD than eli last year. and that on a far worse team and in less PT.

I'm not going to bother reinventing the wheel here. I think Eli is going to have a great season, I think Brunell is done. Therefore, my opinions on the #1 WR's of each of these guys is obvious. Burress over Moss.

And this is simply just not the case. Burress had 76 receptions last year compared to 65 for Shockey & 54 for Barber. So how is he not the #1 target?? Oh that's right, he is!

if you watch giant games, i think you'll find out who eli looks for most often when it matters. but even if you put plaxico #1... who would you have stealing looks? shockey and tiki barber, or brandon lloyd and chris cooley?

brunell is "done", eli is "young", and plaxico has "upside". which are all good reasons why santana moss absolutely squashed plaxico last year and will again.

I easily hand this one to Burress

Both receivers are in their "prime" years. Moss has a Quarterback who is really on the decline and could end up with a 2nd year QB who hasn't played at the NFL level throwing him the ball at some point.

Both of these receivers showed you good stretches and mediocre stretches. Moss had his good stretch after having two long touchdowns giftwrapped to him by Dallas las year. From there, he had a solid 4 game stretch then disappeared basically until late in December.

Eli Manning has more experience under him now and will be better and finding his secondary receivers this year. This will open Burress up more as the season progresses. I expect a better, more consistant season for Burress and consider him one of the top tier #1 fantasy receivers this year.

Moss sits back comfortably as a #2 fantasy receiver.

Al Saunders isn't bringing a fountain of youth for Brunell to go swimming in during training camp.

this is all baffling to me. theres going to be a lot of very disappointed plaxico burress owners next season.

take away his one huge game out of the blue last year, and plax had 1000/5, a very mediocre WR season. take away that one big game, and hes antonio bryant. he also had 7 games last year where he scored you 5 or less points. moss had only 4 such games last year, and he exploded for huge points on a number of occasions. for all plax's size and "being a redzone target," his 7 TDs last year was a career high. moss has had 9 and 10 TD years. plax has also only broken 1000 yards 3 of 6 years in the league, and the 76 catches were also nearly a career high. moss had 84 catches last year for nearly 1500 yards.

whatever, y'all are drinking the eli koolaid. but eli already threw 24 TDs last year, so its not like hes going to go way up. and brunell threw 23 in 15 starts last year at 35 years old. im not too sure that being 36 instead is going to be a deal breaker.

loooootta disappointed plax owners this year...

I gotta go with Moss on this way and I cant really say that I have a strong foundation to stand on. I will say that last year showed us alot of potential from Moss who in his defense last year,had no one to pull the heat off of him. He went into droughts last year then would score a couple of double TD games. I dont see a down side to Moss with Washington expanding thier WR's. Im betting on Moss showing us more consistant numbers week to week. I like Plaxi, I just like Moss' upside better.

You may be right on the disappointed Burress owner, but I think you may end up being a disappointed Santana owner unless you start looking at the his numbers a little closer and quit drinking this Al Saunders cool-aid.

Since you like to toss out "big" games, I have taken a similar approach with Moss. Let's take a look at the second half of last year. In the last 8 games, Moss had onver 100 yds 1 time! He also only scored in 2 of those 8 games (in fact, Moss only scored in 5 games all last year - Burress had 6). The one saving grace he had in that 8 game stretch was a 160 yd 3 TD game. Let's take that out for a second and look at the rest of his work in the other 7 games: 467 yds and 1 TD or 1072 & 2 TD's over 16 games. Now let's put that HUGE game back in, we get a 16 game pace of 1254 yds and 8 TD's and that is if he can duplicate that huge game.

Bottom line is both these guys have a huge risk, but don't let the final numbers of Moss & Brunell fool you last year. They were simply not good down the stretch, and I just can't give them a free pass on that simply b/c Al Saunders is now the OC. Bottom line is I see Moss & Burress in a very close dead heat in my rankings, but give a slight edge to Burress due to a more stable situation, both should be #2 WR's on your team IMO.

Every wr is inconsistant, which is why they are maddening to draft. but Burress has made a short career out of being inconsistant. I knew he'd do well last season. New surroundings. Now the honeymoon is over and the real Plastico will stand up and fade away.

Moss will only get better. He's now proven he's the man in DC. Now there are two more guys to take some pressure off of him getting him working deep....where he is most dangerous. We're forced to compare qbs with these guys because they are the only thing keeping this discussion going. Brunnel will again be serviceable and yes Moss will go apeshat crazy this season. Cooly was the only other real option Brunnel had after Moss. Pattern isn't a #2....El is.

Trust a die-hard Steeler when I tell you sleep on Plastico this season.

Is that why Plaxico was #2 in the league in WR's targeted last year? The only WR to have more targets was Boldi at 171, then it was Plax and Chambers at 166. Seems to me that Plaxico is not only Eli's favorite target, but one of the most targeted WR's in the league.

Ok as a Giants fan I think I am going to surprise you all. First of all, neither of these guys would be a #1 receiver for me, for as many have said neither is that consistent.

Plaxico is a good receiver and yes as Miller says was highly targeted last year, but I think if you really look hard at those target numbers, most of them were in the early part of the season where Eli was looking ONLY for Burress. If you watch any of those early games, Eli was throwing to Plax with every throw it seemed. Once he was able to slow it down and find Toomer, he became a viable receiver for Eli and Plax's numbers dropped dramatically. Now add in a thris receiver with good speed that can stretch the defense and I think that Plax matches last years numbers bit doesnt really exceed them. He is another in the mold of whining little bitchass players that whine everytime they dont get the ball. (remember this Mike, you will see live and up front very soon)

As to Moss, I dont see any reason that Brunell will not have a good year. He started all but one game last year and everyone has him on the critical list. I say he not only makes it through the season but puts up good numbers besides. My problem with Moss, is what others have said, now Brunell has multiple options and will not be afraid to use them all.

I think both of these guys see a slip in their numbers in 2006 with Moss coming out slightly ahead.

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so what miller, you threw out the first 8 games of the season when moss was the #1 fantasy WR, and then you threw out a big game in the second half too, and are trying to project santana moss off of only 7 games he played last season?

santana had 11 games last year with 75+ yards receiving, including 5 with 100+ and 3 with 150+. he also had three games with multiple TDs. with moss, the big game wasnt a once-a-season anomaly to throw out, becuase he had them many times during the season. he had only two games all season with under 50 yards receiving.

burress had 7 games last year with 75+. he had 4 with 100+ and just one with 150+. he also had just one game with multiple TDs. his one huge game was 80 yards and 1 TD more than his next best game all season. meanwhile, he had 7 games of 50 yards or less. there is reason for concern there.

take away the one huge game from burress, and he was a mediocre fantasy WR. take away a big game from santana moss (pick one), and he was still top 10 at WR i bet. WRs are inconsistent, and none of them will have big games every week. but santana had many big games last season, and even in his off weeks, he was catching 75 yards.

you want to talk about a WR disappearing down the stretch? moss during the playoff run had 58, 56, and 73 yards with no TDs during weeks 1-3 of the playoffs. he wasnt great, but he was average and didnt put you behind. and then if you made the fantasy super bowl with him, you probably won behind his 160 yards and 3 TDs. but if you had plaxico burress, you were cooked. burress had 47, 37, 34, and 40 yards your four fantasy weeks. thats not even average, its actually costing you points at WR. sayonara, championship.

im not saying santana is a stud. he'll still be inconsistent at times. but would you rather have an inconsistent WR who gets 40 yards during his off weeks and has 1 big game all season? or an inconsistent WR who gets 70 yards during his off weeks and has 4 big games all season?

santana isnt all world, and hes not in my top 10 at WR. but he certainly looks all world next to the overrated piece of crap called plaxico burress.

See the only flaw to that thinking is by putting all the blame on Burress. A lot of this needs to be put on Eli, as Eli was just very poor on his passing in the secodn half f the season. Believe me I am not a huge Burress fan, but not all the blame is his.

Bomb, why is it you always jet right by the point when someone doesn't agree with you? My point is there is a clear and concise difference from the moss of the first 1/2 to the moss of the 2nd 1/2. That one blow up game in the second half does not correspond with the rest of his numbers after week 6. Moss was all world for the first 6 weeks, then he fell off the planet aside from 1 game! Why?? B/c Brunell came back to earth. If Washington could find a competent QB, Moss could put up the numbers you are expecting, but Brunell is not that guy. Sure he had a nice early season roll, he also went in the shitter the rest of the year. Moss wasn't incocnsistent last year, he was day and night. I try to avoid those guys who were night the second 1/2 of the year myself.

Go ahead and bank on Moss as your #1, I'm betting you end the season pretty disappointed. All the warning signs are there for a dissapointment, you just need to look at them. Your writing off his fall from earth as inconsistent, it's not, he was consistent, consistently mediocre after the first 6 games of the year. Ask those who traded for him last year after week 6 if they were happy with the results they got from the "#1" WR, I know the owner in my league that did was not, lol, but I sure was .

Regardless though, again we need to put this in the agree to disagree category, cause I'm not buying your Saunders cool-aid, and your not buying my Brunell is done cool-aid.

i never said i would bank on moss as my #1 WR. i wont. hes not in my top 10 WRs as i said before. and if i had moss at my WR1 spot, i might end the season disappointed. but if i had plaxico, i would for sure.

plax's best season in his 6 year career is 1300 yards and 7 TDs. that is par for the course for an NFL receiver. now hes feuding with his young, inconsistent QB. and the NFL rules these days wildly favor smaller, quicker guys while the taller, slower guys have become much less valuable.

you'll never see me touting santana moss as a top 5 WR. but this is a "close call." im supposed to compare the two WRs at hand. i say the comparison isnt close. moss at least has a shot to be a top fantasy WR, we just disagree on his chances. burress has barely any shot at all. my vote isnt so much pro-santana as it is very VERY anti-plaxico.

interesting article with some stuff about santana moss, in light of what we are discussing here...

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/insid...t&lid=tab1pos1