RealGM

I know this is a little early, but I thought it'd be nice to talk about something other than, well, you know . . . .

Last year RC RB's had a HUGE influence on fantasy football. Chances are if you scored Forte, Johnson, or Slaton late in the draft, you ended up with a pretty nice year, and there are a few others from that class that will likely have an impact this year.

Now that the draft is over, it's interesting to see what people think of the potential fantasy impact of the new RB's. For example:

Knowshown Moreno, DEN - When the first drafted him I thought he'd be the sure fire #1 rc, but it seems like with all the RB's on that roster people are down on his fantasy potential. I don't buy it. DEN puts out big time RB's on a pretty consistant basis, and non of the other players are anywhere near Moreno from a talent standpoint. DEN is going to run the ball, and Moreno will be the main guy, plus his abililty to catch the ball out of the backfield will be big for leagues that count receptions.

Chris Wells, ARZ - Seems to be ranked ahead of Moreno by many. My problem is this: We all know Zona's going to throw the ball. Last year Hightower and James averaged less than 20 carries/game COMBINED, don't see why that would change now. Plus Hightower will get some carries around the goalline. You could argue Wells will see a lot of soft fronts with teams braced for the pass, but they still have to hand it off to him.

Donald Brown, IND - I think this guy will put up the biggest #'s next year. Rhodes had almost 1000 yards and 9 TD's and Addai's back-up. Addai is falling apart so Brown will likely get a few starts. His ceiling seems to be what Addai was doing 2 years ago: 1500 total yards, 10 TDs, 40 receptions. We all know with Manning under center the Indy offense will be awesome.

If I had to rank the top 3 right now I'd go Moreno, Brown, Wells.

Also plenty of guys available later in the draft too.

Thoughts?

I'd be very cautious on Moreno, just look at the Denver RB situation the last number of years. A few good backs, but they get hurt or steal carries from each other, etc. It wouldn't hurt to take a chance on him late, I guess, but I wouldn't expect much from him.

I look at the RB's the past few years and DEN's turned some no name players into solid fantasy options. What's going to happen when they get a player that's twice as talented as those other guys??

They have a completely new staff and a new offensive system in Denver, so what they did in the past isn't all that relevant.

Ayt wrote:They have a completely new staff and a new offensive system in Denver, so what they did in the past isn't all that relevant.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Did they scrap their zone blocking?

Ryan5UW wrote:

Ayt wrote:They have a completely new staff and a new offensive system in Denver, so what they did in the past isn't all that relevant.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Did they scrap their zone blocking?

If they did and Josh McDaniel for some reason also prefers mediocre left tackles over franchise ones, I'll gladly take Ryan Clady off his hands.

Denver also now has Orton at QB, they'll be looking to establish a good running game.