A couple weeks into free agency it’s time to take a look at the impact the signings so far have had on the fantasy football landscape. Some of them – the Randy Moss re-signing, for instance – are pretty straightforward. But a few of the deals will have ramifications beyond the signees themselves.
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For the first time since the third game of the 2002 season someone besides Brett Favre will quarterback the Green Bay Packers’ next game.
In a move that will have sportscasters from John Madden to Dan Dierdorf crying in their Wild Turkey ‘til training camp starts, Favre has informed the team that he’s hanging up his cleats after 17 seasons, 16 of which were with the Packers, according to FoxSports.com and the Biloxi Sun Herald.
No word yet on whether Madden will further discuss his man-crush on Favre. But Packers GM Ted Thompson, acknowledged Favre in a mid-morning statement at www.packers.com. “The Packers owe [Favre] a tremendous debt of gratitude,” he said. “He has given Packers fans 16 years of wonderful memories, a Super Bowl championship among them, that will live on forever. Brett’s many accomplishments on the field are legendary.”
The Atlanta Falcons announced Sunday that they had signed Michael Turner to a six-year deal. Terms haven’t been released yet that we’ve seen.
On the surface, I don’t know that this one make sense for anyone involved.
The Falcons get a running back that has looked great in backing up LaDanian Tomlinson. Which is good. But the Falcons already had a back who has looked pretty good in what little time I’ve seen of him playing in Jerious Norwood.
And that brings me to why I question the deal from Turner’s stand point–not only do the Falcons have Norwood, but they haven’t even used him effectively in his first two years there.
As the AP article points out, the Turner signing likely signals the end of Warrick Dunn’s time as the starter. That’s a move that should have come last year, when Norwood was out performing him every week towards the end of the year, it seemed.
Yes, I’m probably jaded because I ended up with Norwood on virtually every one of my fantasy teams last year. But I thought he showed in his rookie season that if given enough carries, he would eventually break a long one. Yet for some reason, the Falcons refused to utilize him more, even when Dunn was turning in some putrid performances.
Dunn, who has always been labeled as undersized, and proved earlier in his career that he could be a full time guy, just doesn’t appear to have it any more. He had only one 100 yard rushing game last season (27 carries for 100 yards even against San Francisco), and only 4 games in which he averaged 4.0 yards or more per carry (11 for 55 against the Panthers, 17 for 70 against the Colts, 8 for 32 against the Bucs, and 12 for 70 in the finale against the Seahawks). At the same time he had 8 games where he averaged less than 3.0 yards per carry.
Yes, the entire Falcons team was God awful last year, with their QB going to prison before the season, and a head coach that lacked the fortitude to be an NFL coach, and left for college power house Arkansas before the season even started.
And Norwood did have a couple of clunker games as well. And I did hear rumors about his work habits in training camp. But only once did he get more than 10 carries in a game, and it has always looked to me like Norwood is the kind of guy that needs carries to get something going. As it was, he gained 603 yards last year on 103 carries, a 6.0 yard per carry average. Compared to Dunn’s 720 yards on 227 carries, a 3.2 yard per carry average, for the same offense.
Yes, Turner should be a good, possibly great player. But was it a gaping hole that needed to be filled, compared to some other obvious holes the Falcons have? If early speculation that Turner and Norwood will split time in the backfield is correct, will either be as effective as they might as the full time guy? Will Turner complain about not finally being in the full spotlight, and will Norwood maybe start to complain as well? (Or has he already?)
And, of course, probably the biggest losers in this one are once again the Fantasy Football players out there, who are faced with yet another two headed RB situation, where there were at least some hopes that Turner would find his own starting role, and the Falcons would finally start to utilize Norwood in a featured role as well.
Here’s one for the fantasy football crowds to watch. According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Alge Crumpler reportedly is close to signing with the Seattle Seahawks in a move that should help not only the team but two individuals immensely.
Crumpler has for seven years put up solid numbers as one of the better rounded tight ends in the game. During the last five he’s ranged from 42 to 65 catches and between three and eight touchdowns, though he’s been hampered throughout his career by playing for a bad team with quarterbacking issues. Michael Vick, though an astounding athlete, threw passes that more closely resembled skipping rocks. And this past year, the trio of Byron Leftwich, Joey Harrington and Chris Redmon was uninspiring at best.
In joining the Seahawks Crumpler will be paired with Matt Hasselbeck, who is heading into his eighth year as the team’s starting quarterback. Hasselbeck has developed into a top 10 player at his position and has occasionally shown glimpses of superstardom. And he’s coming off arguably his best season, having fired for nearly 4,000 yards and 28 touchdowns.
And he did so with a below average running game, a solid-but-not-spectacular group of wide receivers like Nate Burleson, Bobby Engram, D.J. Hackett and Deion Branch and just 41 catches from top tight ends Marcus Pollard and Will Heller.
Barring injury Crumpler will arguably become the Seahawks top pass catcher at any position and most certainly will exceed the 41 catches by himself. He’ll take pressure off the aging Bobby Engram and lessen the impact of the team’s dunderheaded trade for the overrated Deion Branch two seasons ago.
And with another major weapon at his disposal it’s not unlikely that Hasselbeck improves on his career-high TD output as well. Don’t expect a Brady-to-Moss-like jump in numbers, but definitely keep your eye on the Hasselbeck-to-Crumpler duo as a strong likely contributor both at Qwest Field and on fantasy teams everywhere.
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