Fantasy Football Impact: Under the Radar Offseason Moves

Since the inception of free agency in the NFL it seems that each year there is more and more off-season movement.

Sometime it’s players moving via free agency and sometimes the movement comes from a trade. Every move whether it appears big or small has the possibility of a fantasy football impact.

The biggest move of 2008 was Michael Turner leaving the shadow of LaDainian Tomlinson to become the starting running back for the Atlanta Falcons and we all know how well that turned out. Turner is now a fantasy stud and will likely be a top three pick in fantasy football drafts this summer.

There were also some smaller “under the radar” signings in 2008 that had a positive fantasy impact.

Isaac Bruce seemed to find the fountain of youth when he left the St. Louis Rams to join the San Francisco 49ers. Bruce finished the season with 61 catches for 835 yards with seven touchdowns.

Bernard Berrian also found renewed life going from the Chicago Bears to the Minnesota Vikings. Berrian may have only had 48 catches in ‘08, but he averaged 20.1 yards per reception totaling 964 yards with seven touchdowns.

The biggest “under the radar” signing in 2008 may have been Antonio Bryant signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bryant who had been a perennial underachiever battling nagging injuries and substance abuse problems, never lived up to expectations in Dallas, Cleveland or San Francisco. After sitting out all of 2007 Bryant signed with the Buccaneers and totaled 83 receptions for 1,248 yards with seven touchdowns.

By now we all know about some of the “big” names that have changed addresses this off-season.

Jay Cutler was traded to the Chicago Bears, Terrell Owens signed with the Buffalo Bills and Tony Gonzalez was traded to the Atlanta Falcons, just to name a few.

Now it’s time to take a look at a few of the 2009 off-season moves that may have flown “under the radar.”

 

QB Kyle Orton—Denver Broncos

Kyle Orton was the other quarterback involved in the Jay Cutler trade to Chicago.

He may have been a throw in, but Orton has a chance to have an immediate fantasy impact. In 2008 Orton started 15 games and passed for 2,972 yards with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions for Chicago.

Not bad numbers considering that the Bears employ a run heavy offense and do not have a true number one wide receiver. As a matter of fact Orton’s top target was running back Matt Forte who had 63 receptions.

In Denver Orton will join new Broncos head coach aJosh McDaniels’ aggressive passing offense. He will also have prolific wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal to pass to. Marshall and Royal had 104 and 91 receptions respectively in ‘08.

Orton may not enter the 2009 season as a starting fantasy football quarterback, but if you draft him as your back-up don’t be surprised if you start trying to find ways to get him into your starting line-up.

 

WR Laveranues Coles—Cincinnati Bengals

In what seemed to be a very quiet move this offseason, wide receiver Laveranues Coles left the New York Jets and signed with the Cincinnati Bengals as a free agent.

In 2008 Coles had 70 receptions for 850 yards with seven touchdowns. Not bad numbers considering the Jets 40-year-old starting quarterback Brett Favre played most of the season with a “tired” arm.

Coles will inherit T.J. Houshmandzadeh’s (who left for Seattle as a free agent) role in the offense as a possession receiver.

He should benefit from playing with Carson Palmer who is an elite quarterback when healthy. Palmer is expected to be fully recovered from last season’s elbow injury. Consider Coles a WR3 heading into the season.

He should post solid reception and yardage totals, but he has never more then seven touchdowns in a season.

 

WR Torry Holt—Jacksonville Jaguars

This may not exactly be an “under the radar” move.

Torry Holt is a big name, but many believe that he is passed his prime as he will be 33 when the season starts.

In 2008 he had 64 receptions for 796 yards with three touchdowns, which were his worst totals since his rookie season in 1999. The Jaguars also run a very heavy run oriented offense with running back Maurice Jones-Drew.

Their starting quarterback David Garrard does not exactly wow you with his passing numbers, but Jacksonville has never had a wide receiver the caliber of Holt for Garrard to pass to.

Holt did sign an incentive laced three year contract and he is looking to prove the skeptics wrong. He insists that his decline in numbers in 2008 were based more on the struggles of the Rams then a deterioration in his skills.

Consider Holt a WR3 heading into 2009 available in the middle rounds of most fantasy draft, which makes him a low risk—high reward player.

 

QB Sage Rosenfels—Minnesota Vikings

Quarterback Sage Rosenfels has been a career back-up and could remain that way if the Vikings can pursued Brett Favre out of retirement, but that is a big if at this point.

Favre is insisting that he is retired and has no intention of returning to play football in 2009. This is very similar to what we heard from Favre in 2008, so who really knows what to believe.

For the sake of this article though let’s just assume that Mr. Favre stays true to his word that he is retired and plans on spending time working on his farm not the gridiron this year.

Rosenfels signed with the Vikings as a free agent and is expected to compete with Tarvaris Jackson for the starting job. Rosenfels appears to be the front runner for the this job, although neither of them posted huge numbers in 2008 as they each started just five games.

Jackson had 1,056 passing yards with nine touchdowns and two interceptions, while Rosenfels posted 1,431 passing yards with six touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Keep a close eye on this situation throughout the offseason and in training camp.

If Rosenfels earns the starting job consider him a QB2 with upside.

Minnesota has a very good offensive line and they have a lot of offensive talent with running back Adrian Peterson, wide receiver Bernard Berrian and rookie wide receiver Percy Harvin drafted in the first round of this year‘s NFL Draft.

 

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