We at Razzball realize that exporting our views across the country has damaging consequences on the blogosphere. To help make amends, we are reaching out to leading team blogs and featuring their locally blogged answers to pressing 2010 fantasy football questions regarding their team. We feel this approach will be fresher, more sustainable, and require less energy consumption (for us anyway). The 2010 Green Bay Packers Fantasy Football Preview comes courtesy of Aaron Nagler over at Cheesehead TV.
1. Aaron Rodgers tends to dominate in fantasy football because of the extra yards and TDs he puts up on the ground. He doesn’t come off as a fleet footed running QB, but he gets it done. Do you see his rushing numbers remaining steady or will we see a drop off?
I actually see a very, very small drop off in his rushing numbers, if only because I don’t think he’ll be running for his life quite as much and because I think in his natural progression as a starting NFL quarterback, he’ll start to hit some of the underneath stuff a bit more rather than looking deep quite so often. We saw this emerge in the second half of 2009 and I think that will extend into 2010. That said, I think what little reduction we see in terms of rushing yards will be more than made up for in terms of passing yards and even a touchdown pass or two more.
2. Last year Ryan Grant quietly had a bounce back season. I have him ranked much higher than a lot of fantasy sites because of the Packers offense and his lack of a committee. Is there any reason he shouldn’t repeat his top 10 RB performance?
Not at all. In fact, I think we’ll see the first complete season from Grant in 2010. He’s got a bit of a reputation as “Mr. December” and he IS a bit of a ‘mudder’ – but I think the offense will be much more cohesive on the whole during the first part of ’10 as compared to ’09 – that will only help Grant. As you allude to – he’s got zero competition for carries. Jackson will play his regular role and Starks and/or Lumpkin will be fighting for the scraps. I think Grant is easily a Top 10 fantasy back in 2010.
3. The offensive line wasn’t great the first half of last season, but started to come around. Do you see more consistent play from them this season?
I do, but not so much because of any great difference in their individual play but because I think McCarthy understands his team isn’t built for the Air Coryel-type attack we saw them try to roll out at the beginning of ’09. (OK, that’s a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean ;) – Once McCarthy got back to his basic West Coast principles, the offense instantly got on track. I know it’s popular to say that “Mark Tauscher saved the offense” last year, but that’s just not the case. He certainly helped, but McCarthy’s adjustments made a much bigger difference and I think we’ll see a continuation of that this year.
4. Donald Driver is one of my favorite players due to his consistency and work ethic. There has been a lot of talk of him having a pretty steep decline this season after having both knees scoped in the offseason. Does James Jones start to cut into his targets or do we see another above average year from Driver?
I have nothing but a gut feeling to offer on this, but I think this is the year you see Jones START to assert himself. I don’t think you’ll see a dramatic dip in Driver’s numbers as a result but a small, slightly noticeable dip. That said, I still think Driver will be a fantastic value play. The guy is simply undervalued in leagues every year.
5. Jermichael Finley has a lot of fantasy footballers all a twitter. Are there enough receptions to go around for him to have a #1 tight end kind of year or will he have to settle for top 5 or 10?
Finley will be in the conversation with Gates, Witten and Gonzalez. Hard to say what the order will be but there’s no question that he is Rodgers’ favorite target. I have no doubt Finley will finish as a Top 5 tight end with a very good chance of being the #1 tight end in fantasy for 2010.
