We’ve been inching McFadden up our cheat sheets all summer long – this guy is an amazing talent and it appears the Raiders are ready to take advantage of it.

This could mean a few less carries for Lynch, but not too many would make sense.  We’ve seen Marshawn be much more effective with 20+ carries a game so although Jackson might be a nice back to spell Lynch he’s not a great fantasy play behind a guy like Lynch.

However, the Falcons are indicating they’d like to see Turner carry the ball more like 275 times in 2009.

FantasyDraftEdge.com Take

That’s easy to say in July but when it comes time to win games and Jerious Norwood is hurt again they’ll give the ball to Turner.  Yes, the Falcons have more weapons on offense but we expect Matt Ryan to regress a bit this season and the run game despite best intentions for balance will still be the primary focus of the Falcons offense.

The multi back system is becoming more and more common.  This makes true #1 workhorse RBs even more valuable on your fantasy team and does help bump up how early you want to take a top shelf WR.

Our concern is that where there’s smoke there’s fire. Sometimes. It’s certainly wait and see and we’ll be watching closely but this makes us very nervous and as we are only a few weeks away from releasing our first cheat sheets Westbrook is sliding down.

***Update – June 6th, 2009***
News is still thin about Westbrook except that the surgery went well and although just how much of training camp he’ll be ready for remains a question mark everyone involved insists that he’ll be ready for the start of the regular season.
This continues to make us nervous, missing all of camp can lead to injuries and Westbrook is injury prone anyway.  A healthy Westbrook is one of our favorite fantasy football options but he’s moving down our cheat sheets right now.

Going up on the cheat sheets at RB are veteran Lorenzo Booker and rookie LeSean McCoy.  Early on it looks like Booker may actually be getting more carries in workouts.  We’ll continue to watch this closely.

*** The FantasyDraftEdge.com Fantasy Impact Take ***

Maroney is in a contract year and if in fact he’s finally healthy he could have a solid season – IF he gets the chance. The Pats haven’t been thrilled with what Maroney has brought them so he’ll certainly have to earn his way back on to the field. Being behind Fred Taylor and Sammy Morris do increase the chances of that happening however. We of course keep an eye on everybody but we are always sure we know who’s playing for a contract.

*** The FantasyDraftEdge.com Fantasy Impact Take ***

Westbrook has been a strong fantasy point producer for several years.  But he’s struggled to stay completely healthy and he’s not getting any younger.  So the backup to Westbrook always has potential to see some time on the field.  LeSean McCoy is a similar runner to Westbrook and an exciting young back.  Additionally, we expect McCoy to see several sets in the backfield with Brian Westbrook.

*** The FantasyDraftEdge.com Fantasy Impact Take ***

The Raiders, once again, seem to be in a position to take a step forward and not suck this season.  But that’s been a common story in the Spring and Summer with this team for a while now and fantasy owners can tell you it simply hasn’t happened.  But once again with some additional weapons and some early positive reports on Russell the Raiders offense looks like it might have some guys worth having on your roster.

The most exciting of these players for fantasy purposes may be Darren McFadden.  With the quick growth of the so called “wildcat” formation McFadden seems very well suited to get many more opportunities this season from several different looks.  

His potential seems to still have him going too high in drafts but if we continue to see this kind of effort from this talented back we’ll likely have McFadden moving up our player rankings on our cheat sheets.

*** The FantasyDraftEdge.com Fantasy Impact Take ***

First of all it’s important to know that as of mid-May it remains our stance that the Atlanta Falcons overall may take a step backwards in the 2009-10 season.  Michael Turner had a career year and Matt Ryan (no matter how good he was last year) is still a 2nd year QB.  Additionally we factor that it’s not uncommon for a team to over achieve one season, then lack the focus and effort to maintain that higher level of play and take a step backwards the following season. 

So we expect Tony Gonzalez to be a solid TE but perhaps not match the numbers in KC during recent seasons.  For a few reasons – 1st is that that Falcons do have other weapons, in KC Tony G was THE weapon the past few seasons.  He’s not likely to see as many balls this season.   Additionally, KC was behind a lot which meant more passing anyway.  And again we’ll go back to the anticipation of overall down offense from the Falcons.

The bigger impact here is Michael Turner.  With another weapon, Turner is likely to get less carries.  We also aren’t going to be too quick to jump on a guy coming off a career year.  Turner was impressive but we’ve seen him (yes it’s still very early) as high as 2 or 3 in player rankings.  That seems too high for a guy that lacks a history of getting it done at this level.