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S Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh Steelers

HT: 5-10, WT: 212, Born: 4-19-1981, College: Southern California, Drafted: Round 1, Pick 16

2008 Projections

Best Case

Polamalu was a top 10 DB in consecutive seasons starting in '04 and was on pace to make it three in a row when injury struck in '06 causing him to miss 3 games. Last year the injury bug bit again, keeping him out of 5 contests altogether while he played gimpy in several others. As a result of two injury shortened seasons Polamalu will be vastly underrated by a lot of fantasy owners. When healthy he is one of the best safeties in the league as well as one of the best DBs in the fantasy game. He is a solid tackle contributor who has had a hand in 19 takeaways and has 7 sacks over the past 4 seasons. If he can stay on the field Polamalu should make a return to the top 10.

Worst Case

Outside of the injury issues there is very little downside with Polamalu. If there is one knock it would be a tendency to be a little inconsistent. In 25 games over the past two seasons Polamalu has put up 3 or fewer solo stops a total of 10 times. The bottom line here is that a bad season for a healthy Polamalu would amount to 65 solo stops, a handful of big plays and a top 25 finish.

Outlook

Were it not for nagging injuries Polamalu would likely be on a streak of 4 top 15 fantasy finishes. There is little doubt what he is capable of when healthy so the only issue here is has he become injury prone or has he just been on a run of bad luck? He is not a huge tackle producer but provides a good mixture of quality tackle numbers and enough big plays to be considered among the top shelf fantasy options at the position. The Steelers move him around the formation to take advantage of his athleticism and intelligence. Their goal being to put him in position to make game changing plays. Those kinds of plays generally show up strong in fantasy terms as well. Polamalu lacks great week to week consistency but remains a solid option as a DB1 or an excellent DB2.

Writeups last modified: 2008-06-19 16:31:59