Billy Volek

Sixty-one com­ple­tion per­cent­age. Nearly 250 yards per game. 1.8 TD’s com­pared to .8 inter­cep­tions per game. Com­bine those num­bers with a QB who is get­ting his first chance to start a sea­son as the #1 guy after three years of watch­ing Steve McNair run an offense and you’d prob­a­bly expect said player to be at least drafted in fan­tasy leagues. Not so. Titans QB Billy Volek is going undrafted, even in larger leagues, which could very well be a mis­take.

Now, not every­thing is per­fect for the for­mer Fresno St. sig­nal caller. One thing that may be scar­ing peo­ple away is the Titans selec­tion of Vince Young in the 2006 draft. We all know Young’s exploits and the con­cern is legit­i­mate. While not signed yet, the Rose Bowl hero should give his John Han­cock to the Titans soon. While that’s all well and good, Titans GM Floyd Reese said what’s most impor­tant to fan­tasy foot­ballers here, declar­ing Volek the starter com­ing into 2006.

The offense around Volek is another advan­tage. David Givens, Drew Ben­nett, and a deep WR and TE group will make the pass­ing game dan­ger­ous. Chris Brown, Travis Henry, and LenDale White are as good a 1,2,3 punch at RB in the entire league, which will help alle­vi­ate some pres­sure. Of course, bar­ring a defen­sive improve­ment of mir­a­cle pro­por­tions, the Titans will often find them­selves down in games, hav­ing to throw a lot to catch up.

I will not be crazy and pre­dict a top 15 or even a top 20 fin­ish for Billy. I will say that if you spend a higher pick on your starter(Manning, Palmer, Brady), you can afford to wait a long time on your backup, a guy you only plan on using once. While you are work­ing on find­ing the diamonds-in-the-rough at RB and WR, your oppo­nents will have to devote a late rounder to bor­ing backup QB’s like Byron Left­wich, Mark Brunell, or Steve McNair.

It might be wise to wait and hope Volek drops to at the very tail end of your draft…unless 250 and 2 TD’s on your starter’s bye-week sounds too good for you.