Jason Campbell Injury: What Is Fantasy Effect on the Other Oakland Raiders?

The Oakland Raiders' 24-17 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday was a costly one, as the Raiders lost starting quarterback Jason Campbell to a broken collarbone that may have ended the seventh-year pro's season and has cast a cloud of doubt over the fantasy football values of several  Raiders, including wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey and running back Darren McFadden.

The Oakland aerial attack won't be confused with the Green Bay Packers any time soon, as the Raiders entered the week ranked 23rd in the National Football League in passing offense, so at first glance it wouldn't seem that the fantasy fortunes of McFadden, the NFL's leading rusher, would be impacted too adversely.

However, while the Raiders weren't gaining huge chunks of yardage through the air, Campbell had been fairly effective at managing the game and keeping defenses honest. If the new starter in Oakland (be it Kyle Boller or someone else) is unable to do that, McFadden could find himself staring at eight-man fronts all day, which is going to make the sledding tougher.

At the end of the day McFadden's fantasy owners will just have to hope that the Oakland passing game won't completely disintegrate. Although McFadden's value may have been dinged a bit today, he remains safely in fantasy RB1 territory.

The outlook isn't so rosy for Darrius Heyward-Bey, who for the first time in his career had entered fantasy relevance on the heels of back-to-back solid statistical outings. The third-year pro actually had another decent day today, reeling in six catches for 82 yards in the Oakland victory, but whether that production is sustainable is now very much in doubt.

Should the Raiders acquire another similar "game manager" quarterback (such as free agent David Garrard) it's possible that Heyward-Bey could maintain fantasy WR4 value, but with the strong-armed but erratic Boller under center, Heyward-Bey's fantasy value will take a significant hit.