Fantasy Outlook: Percy Harvin

A month ago, before the whole “I’m not happy, trade me” talk from Percy Harvin, I had him as a top ten fantasy receiver (barely). Now I’m not so sold. Percy is unquestionably a HUGE part of the Vikings offense and will get his touches receiving or on the ground (pretty much the only receiver you can say that for) but there a number of red flags in drafting him. Obviously the biggest in Harvin’s case, is if he even wants to suit up and play for the Vikings. When most guys playing under their rookie contract demand a trade it’s because the team is unwilling to pay them and they want a new deal. In Harvin’s case it’s something unrelated to money (according to Harvin) and is something team related. Is he upset with being taken off the field constantly (As a Viking fan I love this attitude)? Does he want Webb to be given the opportunity to start at QB? Is he unhappy being on a 4 win team? No one knows but Harvin, but in any case, an unhappy WR is never a good thing.

Technically Harvin has only missed 3 games his whole career but it seems like much more to me. He constantly has some type of aliment week-to-week, which puts him on the injury report somewhere. Since Childress was fired Harvin’s migraines have seemed to go away but there is no telling if they will come back and be an issue. With Harvin unhappy, would it surprise anyone if he feigned migraine if whatever it was that caused him to demand a trade came up again?

With all the negatives stated above there are some positives. With Peterson coming off a devastating injury Harvin is going to get the chance to run the ball around 5+ times a game. Add in the fact that he’s going to have around 12+ targets through the air (good for 8-10 receptions) he becomes extremely valuable in a PPR league. Even if you’re in a standard league he’s still a great fantasy player, good for 8th best WR last year. The receiving corps around him is much better this year so there is a chance one of the rookies turns out to be decent and takes away some targets from Harvin. If that is the case I still look at that as a positive because that makes the team better, which will lessen the odds that Harvin is unhappy and won’t suit up.

A lot of people have Harvin in the late teens to early twenties in their WR rankings which seems a bit ridiculous to me. The guy was a top ten WR last year with a rookie QB behind center, there’s no reason to think he won’t be able to put up a 1000 yard receiving year with a more mature Ponder. He has some red flags but the guy gives it his all every single play and that tells me he will want to play. He’s right around #10 in my rankings but with a lot of people low on Harvin so I think you could get him in the 5th or 6th round.

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to email me at vikingagefantasy@yahoo.com or reach me on twitter at https://twitter.com/PHowell02