Factoid
Tony Gonzalez plays at Kansas City on Sunday. But does that mean you should be any more likely to use him in your lineup? Is there anything to the idea that a player gets fired up to play against a former team?
It seemed to make sense on Wednesday night. Martellus Bennett caught 4 passes for 40 yards and a touchdown in his first game against the Cowboys.
Below are the most notable similar situations from the last five years. These are the first games by players against previous teams.
In some cases, there definitely seems to be a correlation. Anquan Boldin, for example, caught 7 passes for 145 yards against Arizona last season. And Deion Branch caught 4 for 88 and 2 TDs in a game against the Patriots (he didn’t do much of anything the rest of that year for the Seahawks).
Overall, however, the numbers aren’t overwhelming. Below are the 28 cases. In 14 of these (half), the player either scored or went over 100 yards. That’s good, but not overwhelming data.
This could be a deal like contract years. Seems to work in some cases, but it’s clearly not a factor in many instances.
PAYBACK PLAYERS
No Yds TD Year Pos
9 138 2 2007 WR Wes Welker (Mia.)
4 49 0 2007 WR Santana Moss (NYJ)
1 13 0 2007 TE Visanthe Shiancoe (NYG)
5 70 2 2008 WR Kevin Walter (Cin.)
4 88 2 2008 WR Deion Branch (N.E.)
5 67 2 2008 WR Randy Moss (Oak.)
6 81 1 2008 WR Bernard Berrian (Chi.)
3 30 1 2008 WR Chris Chambers (Mia.)
4 47 1 2008 WR Justin Gage (Chi.)
3 15 0 2008 WR Plaxico Burress (Pitt.)
7 70 1 2009 WR Chris Chambers (S.D.)
4 37 1 2009 TE Jeremy Shockey (NYG)
6 100 0 2009 WR Nate Burleson (Minn.)
1 8 0 2009 WR Nate Washington (Pitt.)
6 60 0 2010 WR Santonio Holmes (Pitt.)
4 59 0 2010 WR Braylon Edwards (Clev.)
5 55 0 2010 WR Laurent Robinson (Atl.)
4 32 0 2010 TE Kellen Winslow (Clev.)
2 20 0 2010 WR Roy Williams (Det.)
0 0 0 2010 WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh (Cin.)
5 50 1 2011 TE Greg Olsen (Chi.)
1 14 1 2011 WR Steve Smith (NYG)
7 145 0 2011 WR Anquan Boldin (Ariz.)
6 61 0 2011 WR Brandon Marshall (Den.)
3 34 0 2011 WR Plaxico Burress (NYG)
2 25 0 2011 WR Laurent Robinson (St.L.)
3 21 0 2011 TE Jeremy Shockey (N.O.)
4 40 1 2012 TE Martellus Bennett (Dall.)
—Ian Allan
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Posted by Roy Sherman | Sep. 09 at 05:13 PM
I think it would be interesting to know how many of those players were traded by their former team, and how many left via free agency. I think a traded player might be more likely to get fired up against his former team, where the former team might be more likely to get fired up playing against a player who left via free agency.