Fantasy Football

My apologies for the lack of attention around here lately. We’ve been rather busy and there just hasn’t been much noteworthy stories across the wire as of late, so we didn’t trouble ourselves with it on Friday. But there is some news today that barring what happens in the draft, should have an impact on the first round of most competent fantasy leagues.

That news being of course that the Jacksonville Jaguars have finally cut Fred Taylor. Why? The same reason anyone in the NFL does anything: Cap space. And unfortunately for Taylor it makes all too much sense from a business perspective. His better days are about three years behind him and although he’s had a pretty successful run with the Jags (in north Florida, basically), the team is better off spending that money to load up the offensive line.

So this opens the flood gates for Maurice Jones-Drew to see the predominant amount of carries. Assuming they do not draft anyone too high at the running back position and that passing game stays as anemic as it has been the past year, Drew should be top five potential in just about any competent draft. He was starting to show a tendency to fumble the ball away against good defenses but I imagine that will be remedied if he’s going to be getting 80% of the carries (they still have Greg Jones).

I had Jones last year and his week-to-week performances fluctuated like nobody else in the NFL, but the 20+ point weeks far outweighed 10 and below. Again, barring what happens in the draft and he stays healthy, I’m ranking him just below Tom Brady, Adrian Peterson (though the looming death rattle of a season ending injury is always prevalent) and Brian Westbrook. He’s right in the mix with DeAngelo Williams (splitting carries), Michael Turner (also splitting carries) and Larry Fitzgerald (might see a change at quarterback).

So while the Jags are a longshot to make the playoffs (but really, what’s a long shot in the NFL these days?), they have at least one viable fantasy player for the 2009 season. Maurice Jones-Drew is basically the Calvin Johnson of running backs: He’ll be able to amass top five at his position numbers but his team is most likely staring down the barrel of a 6-10 season, assuming things keep treading downward for the once hopeful Jags.