Brandon Lloyd, Wide Receiver, New England Patriots

2012 Statistics: 74 receptions, 911 yards and four touchdowns. 

Many expected Lloyd to be a breakout star for the Patriots in 2012. After all, he was just a couple years removed from leading the entire National Football League in receiving yards. Couple that with Tom Brady throwing him the ball, and a lot of fantasy experts projected him to put up WR1 numbers.

It didn’t happen.

Lloyd put up a total of just two 100-yard receiving games and tallied just three touchdowns in his first 12 games. Overall, Lloyd failed to hit the 1,000-yard mark and put up just five touchdowns throughout the season.

Averaging just 7.3 fantasy points per outing, Lloyd wasn’t much more than a mid-tier FLEX option on decent rosters. This production pales in comparison to where some major fantasy outlets projected him going. In fact, he went towards the end of the fourth round, on average, in standard ESPN 12-team leagues.

For comparison’s sake, Lloyd was drafted higher than the likes of Vincent Jackson and Demaryius Thomas. Just chew on that for a second.

Moving forward, I don’t expect much more than average FLEX production here. Lloyd had a shot to make his name known in New England, but failed to be the consistent receiver that Brady and company were looking for. New England, as always, will look to upgrade the wide receiver position for Brady. Couple that with a healthy Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez and you can’t expect a great deal of production from Lloyd in ‘13.

Next up: Denarius Moore, Wide Receiver, Oakland Raiders