In a comparison of the NFL season to an average day’s meals, I hope that I can provide you with a second breakfast of sorts in this article. With the first breakfast being the NFL combine, which is the ultimate tease of making fans miss football. This second breakfast may be when your mom makes a family breakfast, but you come back to the kitchen 20 minutes later and snag those clutch left behind, but never forgotten, strips of artery clogging bacon. Second breakfast is just enough to hold you over until lunch, which, in terms of the NFL season, we will call the pre season and Fantasy Draft period. Thus, leaving the 17-week season as the steak dinner, and the playoffs as the decadent desert.
Hopefully I didn’t lose anybody with that food analogy, but if you are like me, then fantasy football time is the best time of the year. There is nothing quite like having Adrian Peterson do your smack talking for you as he destroys your roommate’s fantasy hopes and dreams. Absolutely nothing. With football season so far away, let me try to appease your appetites by looking at the free agent moves already made this offseason and their fantasy fall out to help you assert your fantasy dominance over your roommates.
The number one big gun that traded hands and should now have the entire NFC West shaking in their boots is the addition of TE Jimmy Graham to the Seattle Seahawks. This poses a very interesting shake up because Seattle is a team built on its defense and running game with Beast Mode. This combination allowed Russell Wilson to quietly operate and sneakily become the third highest scoring fantasy player last season for ESPN standard scoring. That’s right, and it’s because he was able to rack up around 850 rushing yards and 6 rushing touchdowns on top of his highly efficient passing game. Jimmy will continue to destroy all those who are foolish enough to try to stop him. He has fallen off a bit from his ridiculous 2013 season, but I am happy to grab him in the second or early third round. The real take from this though is to take Russell Wilson when others are sleeping on him, especially now that he has such a beast at his disposal on top of the super bowl caliber team already around him.
Keeping with the Saints, their skill players have been one of the main stories so far in free agency. Mark Ingram signed on for another four years with the Saints; he looked spectacular at times last season and was able to stay healthy for a solid 13 games. He rewarded fantasy owners with a 9-touchdown effort in those 13 games, and he only looks to be getting better. Great RB2 option if you can get him. However, the Saints did bring in CJ Spiller to replace the more than likely exiting Pierre Thomas, whose contract is currently up. CJ is a guy that averages a freakish 5 yards per carry for his career, including a 6 YPC average in his stellar 2012 season with the Bills. He struggled with some injuries last season, but he could be incredibly dangerous on a team that spreads the ball, and the defense, so far out. His change of pace ability and breakaway speed can be deadly if you give him room to work. Watch both his and Ingram’s health, but these guys both have the talent to be top 15 guys in the RB category, even on the same team.
The other huge RB shake up involves America’s team and those arm flapping degenerates from Philly. You know who I am talking to, Eagles fans. I apologize, but sometimes I can’t help but let my Dallas bias out. It is a full time job for my emotions to keep up with the highs and lows of Tony Romo. (Look for Mavericks opinion pieces to come, shameless self-promotion).
Demarco Murray became the first Cowboy to lead the league in rushing since Emmitt Smith did it four times in five years, and somehow he is now no longer on the team?! That is a story no matter what team you are on. Not only is he no longer on the team, but also he is on bitter rival Philadelphia Eagles. As a Cowboy fan, I am already preparing myself for the inevitable beat down that he will put on our defense the first time we face him next season. If you drafted Demarco last season then it was probably in the late first round, or possibly even the early second. You wound up with a steal; he had 50 more fantasy points than the fourth best RB (Matt Forte). He also led the league, along with Marshawn Lynch, with 13 rushing touchdowns last season. That is really how you win fantasy games, touchdowns touchdowns touchdowns. He is now a member of a Philadelphia team that Chip Kelly has flipped completely upside down. It seems that just about every skill player on the roster has been shipped off. Look for Demarco to be an extremely high risk/high reward type player somewhere between the middle of the first round to the middle of the second. The risk obviously lies in the injury potential. He carried the rock 392 times last season, and had 449 total touches including his catches. No back has ever been the same after a workload like that. Some backs such as Eric Dickerson were able to put up 1000 yards the next season, but his touchdown total went down by half from 11 to 6. What wins fantasy football games again? Touchdowns. Either way, his production will take a hit because he will no longer be the workhorse. He now has two very competent backfield partners in Sproles and Matthews, although Matthews has been as injury prone as they come. Not to mention, also injury prone and unproven QB Sam Bradford as a backfield partner.
The other end of this RB story is Shady McCoy, who has bee shipped off the “Bully”, Buffalo Bills. They quietly finished out as the number one fantasy defense, and they were the third ranked passing defense last season. Shady obviously was brought in to try to help their 25th ranked run game that has been hampered by injuries to Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller through the years. He got off to a slow start last season, but he has a good opportunity to succeed in Buffalo. Their strong defense will keep him on the field, and he will have his name called plenty of the time to help their passing game as EJ Manuel and Sammy Watkins continue to develop. He has proven throughout his career that he can help out in the passing game as well, averaging 3.3 catches per game through his 90 game career for you folks playing in PPR leagues. If you find yourself around picks 7-10 in the draft, I would feel very comfortable taking him here as a solid option that has only missed six games his whole career. Remember, you don’t win championships by whom you pick in the first round, but you can certainly tank a season by picking a first round bust. Shady is about as safe of a late first round pick as they come.
My other favorite offseason move so far is Ndamukong Suh to the Dolphins to line up next to Cameron Wake. Enjoy this picture of him stomping Jameis Winston.
Categories: NFL, Professional Sports
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